Voices
by KillamriX88
Summary: Naruto starts hearing voices, but it's gonna get a whole lot more complicated than that. Challenge fic from Soulblazer87
1. Voices

**This is not **_**entirely**_** my idea. This is a challenge fic from Soulblazer87. However, all I got was an outline, so I still want 99% of the credit because I still have to think of most of it!**

**I have other fics, so this one will probably progress slowly...**

* * *

**Voices**

"I hate D-Rank missions!" Naruto whined. They had just finished up yet another round of annoying, tedious, boring and lame-rank missions. Or at least that's what Naruto called them.

"We know," Sakura glared, "you only remind us once a _minute!_"

"It might not be so bad if you actually_ did something_." Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Or maybe _you _just need to stop worrying about messing up your pretty face, teme!" Naruto glared.

"Whatever..." Sasuke scoffed.

"Oh, that's all you got huh?" Naruto smirked, "is it because I'm right or are you just too _stupid _to think of a comeback."

"That's rich coming from you, _dobe._" Sasuke glared.

"Just ignore him Sasuke-kun, he's an idiot." Sakura said. Naruto twitched slightly,

_"That... hurt..."_ He thought.

"I'm going home." Sasuke sighed.

"O-oh... bye Sasuke-kun." Sakura stuttered, disapointed.

"Yeah, just go home teme, you know I'm right." Naruto crossed his arms.

"Well it's better than standing around near your ugly ass." Sasuke smirked.

"You know what teme, I should just kick _your_ ass." Naruto twitched.

"As if you could." Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Wanna make a bet?" Naruto grinned.

"A bet?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow, "lemme guess, loser pays for ramen."

"No!" Naruto denied it, ". . . yes. . ." He conceded.

"Fine, whatever." Sasuke, "let's just get it over with." He said and walked towards the nearest training area, Naruto following close behind.

"Grr, guys, always thinking with their testosterone. DAMMIT NARUTO!" Sakura stomped the ground angrily, fuming, "I wanted to get Sasuke-kun alone, but nooo!"

- - -

"Are you ready?" Sasuke asked.

"Of course I am!" Naruto took a basic fighting stance.

Sasuke rolled his eyes at the poor stance, "Just promise you won't cry when you lose."

"Yeah yeah, real funny. Let's do it!" Naruto grinned in anticipation, _"If I win this maybe Sakura-chan will like me more!"_

With that it began. Naruto charged at Sasuke, beginning strong with a powerful punch... that completely missed causing him to fall flat on his face.

"That's just pathetic." Sasuke shook his head almost sadly.

"I'm j-just getting warmed up!" Naruto argued as he got up. He rushed at Sasuke with another punch, but Sasuke easily twisted around him and kicked him in the back, causing Naruto to once again crash to the ground. Naruto got up again, and turned to face Sasuke, only to get a fist square in the face. He stumbled back, clutching his nose in pain. Sasuke didn't let up, following with a fist to the gut and then a quick knee to the face.

At this point Naruto's nose was bleeding from the combined abuse of the punch and the knee. Once he recovered, he made a hand seal,

"That's it, I'm done playing!" Naruto growled, "Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" With that five new Narutos appeared.

"Great, more Narutos..." Sasuke sighed, "well then I guess I should try a little harder. Sharingan!" The Uchiha's eyes turned red and two tomoe appeared in each of his eyes. With time seeming to slow down, Sasuke easily outmaneuvered the clones, dispatching them within seconds. That was when he realized that there were none left. On a whim, he spun around with a backhand. It turned out to be a good whim as he came within centimeters of Naruto's face.

And 'eep' of surprised escaped Naruto's lips at that,

"Did you just... squeak?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"N-no!" Naruto denied it.

"Yes you did." Sasuke crossed his arms.

"Shut up!" Naruto threw a punch to shut Sasuke up, but the Uchiha side stepped and then kneed him in the stomach and followed with an elbow to the back of the neck that floored his blond opponent.

Naruto lay on the ground, groaning sightly, _"Dammit... I'm getting my ass kicked."_ His hands balled into fists in frustration. He always went on about becoming Hokage, or Sasuke being an arrogant prick, but here he was being beaten by him easily. He was pretty sure he hadn't even touched Sasuke yet.

Naruto struggled to his feet, and turned to face Sasuke,

"Why are you just standing there, I'm not done yet!" Naruto growled.

"Well I am, this is getting boring." Sasuke muttered and turned to leave. Naruto growled angrily and then went to slam his fist into the back of the Uchiha's head. To his surprise, it hit. So surprised was he that he just stood there with a stupid look on his face. Sasuke on the other hand began to turn around slowly, and obviously quite angered. Naruto, in his surprised stupor, barely noticed that Sasuke was about to return the favor, and then some.

_'Duck'_ Naruto suddenly heard in his head, his eyes widened as he realized doing so would be a good idea. He ducked just before Sasuke could further abuse his nose. _'Back'_ Naruto heard again. At first he wasn't sure what it meant, but he noticed Sasuke was about to kick him and then quickly hopped back. At this point Naruto was confused, as he had never before had a voice telling him what to do, and he was wondering where the hell it had been all his life.

"Hmph, did you finally learn how to not _suck_?" Sasuke glared.

"Umm, maybe?" Naruto replied, not sure what was going on himself. Sasuke, however, was done talking and dashed forward.

_'Right, block.'_ The voice ordered. Naruto realized it was a female voice, furthering his confusion. However, the advice was still good. He raised his hand to block a right hook from Sasuke, _'Low front, block'_ This time it warned Naruto that Sasuke's right knee was on a collision course for his stomach, and he raised his own knee to take the hit. _'Rotate, elbow, left temple.'_ Naruto could barely understand the orders, but he managed to follow them. He spun around, disengaging from Sasuke, and then brought his elbow up to land a satisfying blow right to the side of Sasuke's head. All of this, starting from the first block, happened in about four seconds.

Sasuke stumbled away, clutching his head. He looked back at Naruto, shocked. He couldn't figure out why Naruto was suddenly not just holding his own, but winning. He shook his head, deciding it was too early to say Naruto was winning.

_'Forward, sweep kick.'_ The voice gave the next move. Naruto obeyed, moving towards Sasuke, but then dropping low to attempt to sweep Sasuke's legs out form under him with his leg. However, Sasuke had plenty of time to react thanks to his sharingan, and jumped over the attack. _'Turn, support with left arm, right high kick.'_ Again, it was getting complicated, but Naruto figured it out in time. He twisted his body, landing on his left side and raising his right leg to kick Sasuke while he was in mid air, knocking him to the ground.

As Sasuke lay on his back, he began to consider the possibility that maybe it _wasn't_ too early to say Naruto was winning.

_'Pin opponent!'_ The voice ordered with urgency instead of the formerly cool and calculating tone. Naruto didn't really care about that though as he quickly moved to pin Sasuke before he could get up. When Sasuke struggled, the voice gave a new order, _'Strike!' _Naruto obeyed and raised his fist to hit Sasuke. The order was given again, and again Naruto hit Sasuke. It was given again, and again, each time urging him to hit harder until suddenly Naruto realized Sasuke wasn't struggling much anymore and for the first time since it had first spoken, he didn't obey the order.

"Err, S-Sasuke... are you OK?" Naruto asked a bit nervously. Sasuke just replied with a weak groan, _"Well... at least he's alive." _Naruto thought.

"Ugh... g-get off me... dobe..." Sasuke spoke weakly.

"Oh, right..." Naruto quickly got up, even holding his hand out to help his teammate up. Sasuke ignored it and just rolled onto his hands and knees, clutching his head with one hand. After a minute he got to his feet.

"I'm... going home..." Was all the Uchiha said and stumbled off. So battered was he that he didn't even try to yell at Naruto.

"Heh... he's gonna be pissed tomorrow." Naruto said to himself nervously.

- - -

Sakura had decided to wait until her two teammates had finished fighting in hopes of another chance to seduce Sasuke. Or something to that effect anyway. However, she was surprised when Sasuke exited the training ground stumbling and with his face bloody and swollen.

"S-Sasuke-kun!?" Sakura shouted and ran over to him.

"Not. Now." Sasuke growled and waved her off.

"B-but-"

"Go away." Sasuke muttered as he did his best to straighten his walk and head home. Deciding she didn't want to make him mad, Sakura didn't follow him. She turned around just in time to see Naruto attempting to sneak away.

"NARUTOOOOO! WHAT DID YOU DO TO SASUKE-KUN!!!???" She roared.

"I... umm... beat him?" Naruto gulped fearfully, for in his mind Sakura had just turned into a fire breathing demon from hell.

"You hurt him!" Sakura glared.

"Sorry?"

"You have five seconds to explain before I beat you senseless." Sakura cracked her knuckles. She didn't care what Naruto said, he was as good as dead.

"Th-the voices in my head made me do it?" Naruto cringed.

"That's... the best you can come up with?" Sakura twitched.

"It's true..." Naruto whimpered, eyes shut, waiting for the inevitable agony of being knocked through a few fences.

"You're an idiot, a pathetic idiot." Sakura sighed and turned to walk away, suddenly just wanting to go home and forget Naruto existed. At least until tomorrow.

Naruto sighed in relief. He supposed pathetic was better than _dead_. However, he hadn't been lying to her he remembered. He really had been listening to voices. At the time the voice had been helping him so he hadn't questioned it, but now...

"_Would it have made me _kill_ Sasuke?"_ Naruto wondered. He also wondered _why_ he had heard it, was he going insane? Had Sakura hit him just one too many times? So many questions. But he was hungry so he decided to think about later after he had eaten some ramen. Then he remembered,

"Dammit Sasuke, you owe me ramen you cheap-ass!"

- - -

Three things alerted Kakashi to the fact that his team was not right. One, nobody yelled at him for being an hour late, two Sakura was looking at Sasuke worriedly instead of the usual fawning, and three Naruto looked distant. Naruto was supposed to be hyper, not brooding.

"Alright, what's going on?" Kakashi asked, crossing his arms.

"Naruto hurt Sasuke-kun!" Sakura spoke up instantly. Kakashi raised an eyebrow at this,

"How?"

"I beat him in a fight..." Naruto muttered. Sasuke lowered his head at this, as if trying to shrink away.

"Really? That's a surprise." Kakashi commented without really thinking.

"What's that supposed to mean!?" Naruto shouted.

"That you're improving, obviously." Kakashi tried to diffuse the situation.

"He didn't have to pummel Sasuke-kun's face." Sakura glared at Naruto. The mention of that particular part of the beating caused Sasuke to shrink further. It hurt his pride having Kakashi hear all this.

"Naruto?" Kakashi raised his one visible eyebrow.

"I uhh... got carried away?" Naruto laughed nervously.

"Sparring is one thing, but you shouldn't be injuring each other. If an accident happens, fine, but don't go beating each other into a pulp." Kakashi scolded. He glanced at Sasuke and his eye widened when he saw the amount of swelling. The Uchiha had _two_ black eyes, "just _how _carried way did you get?!"

"According to Naruto the voices in his head made him do it." Sakura rolled her eyes, "baka..."

"Really?" Kakashi muttered. To most they would think it was just the stupid excuse of a child, but to someone who knew what Kakashi knew, it was most troubling, "Umm, do you want the day off Sasuke?"

"No, it doesn't even hurt anymore!" Sasuke snapped.

"Oh really, so if I poke your face you won't mind?" Naruto asked.

"If you want to lose your finger, go ahead." Sasuke hissed.

"Right then, we'll just do more D-Rank missions today since you clearly had plenty of training yesterday." Kakashi interrupted before the two killed each other. Naruto hung his head in despair.

- - -

After a day of boredom and tedium, Team 7 went their separate ways. Except for Kakashi, he stopped Naruto before he could leave,

"We need to talk." Kakashi said seriously.

"Wh-what about?" Naruto gulped. Kakashi had a rather scary look on his face.

"Sakura said 'voices' told you to beat Sasuke?" The jounin asked.

"Well I needed to say something to keep Sakura from killing me, so..." Naruto lied. Kakashi saw through it,

"As much as I believe she would have, I also believe you're lying." Kakashi crossed his arms, "what happened? I'd like to believe you've really just improved, but to be able to beat Sasuke to such an extent seems a bit extreme."

Naruto looked at the ground and then started speaking, "Well... Sasuke was actually beating _me, _I couldn't lay a hand on him; especially when he started using his sharingan." Naruto sighed, "then, when I was starting to think about giving up I heard this voice. It told me what to do, like, it told me how to block before Sasuke even moved or how to hit him. It was always right, every time. Then I managed to pin Sasuke and it told me to hit him. It just kept telling me to hit him over and over, harder and harder." Naruto was trembling slightly at this point at the memory of what he'd done, "I stopped when I realized what I was doing... but... but..."

"You don't know when _it_ would have had you stop?" Kakashi finished his thought.

"Y-yeah." Naruto nodded solemnly. Kakashi was rather disturbed by this, but he believed Naruto regretted what he had done, and he _had _stopped, so the voice couldn't completely control him.

"Is there anything else you can tell me?" Kakashi asked.

"Well, it was a girl's voice." Naruto shrugged, not knowing what else he could say.

"I... see..." This puzzled Kakashi greatly. His first thought had been that perhaps it was the Kyuubi. But was the Kyuubi female? Then again if it could, even with the seal, communicate with Naruto, who was to say it couldn't alter its voice? Besides that, Kakashi had no idea what the Kyuubi sounded like in the first place; or if this even was the Kyuubi.

"Sorry..." Naruto muttered.

"It's fine, but I want you to listen carefully." Kakashi said, looking Naruto in the eye, "if you ever hear this voice again, ignore it, and come tell me the first chance you get. You can only break this rule if it is to save your life, understand?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah."

- - -

Naruto changed after that. Some would say for the better, but to those who knew him even a little, it was rather disturbing. He was quieter, and was actually useful during D-Rank missions. It went so far as,

"Sakura-chan, stop staring at Sasuke's ass and get back to work." Naruto muttered. Sakura's face turned bright red,

"Wh-what!?" She sputtered.

"You know you were." Naruto smirked a little.

"You... you... GAH!" She glared at him, but she was too embarrassed to argue and went back to the task at hand.

Moments like these were growing more common much to the dismay of his teammates. Especially Sakura because, unlike before, Naruto easily avoided any attempt of her's to bash his skull in. Usually in an infuriatingly casual manner.

All of this just served to increase Kakashi's concern. He was afraid something in Naruto had snapped, and that this change in behavior was just the beginning. Who knew what was going on deep inside the boy.

- - -

It had been two weeks, and aside from Naruto's consistently unusual behavior, nothing overly strange had happened.

"Alright, you guys know the drill, let's go get some missions." Kakashi said.

"No." Naruto said quite simply.

"What was that?" Kakashi asked.

"I know I've said it before, but D-Rank missions are stupid." Naruto explained, "we're ninja, you should be training us more. For now it's nothing that hard, but one day we could be sent out to assassinate someone or something." At first Kakashi was going to give a simple response and just wave Naruto off... until he realized his argument was actually _rational_.

"Well, that's true enough I guess-" Kakashi began, but was cut off,

"Not to mention we've been doing _a lot _of D-Rank missions, for nearly a week straight, we _really _need more training. I mean just look at Sakura, she can't do much of anything." Naruto continued.

"HEY!" Sakura glared.

"And the only reason I can do anything besides the absolute basics is because I _stole_ a scroll of forbidden jutsu. I mean seriously, Sasuke is the lucky one because he got extra training from his clan. What about the rest of us?" Naruto crossed his arms. The three other members of team 7 just stood there, slack jawed and wide eyed.

"_You_ stole a scroll of forbidden jutsu!?" Sakura asked incredulously.

"Heheh, yeah..." Naruto replied, "how do you think I learned Kage Bunshin no Jutsu?"

"That's horrible!" Sakura shouted.

"Calm down Sakura, it's not entirely his fault, he was tricked into doing it." Kakashi tried to calm her down.

"Still..." Sakura crossed her arms.

"This is all beside the point though. What about training us?" Naruto asked Kakashi. Kakashi didn't answer right away. There was a reason he'd cut back on training. He still had no idea what had happened to Naruto, and he didn't want to provoke another incident. However, Naruto had a good point. If Kakashi continued to just grind D-Rank missions because he was too scared to train his own team, he would be holding them back unfairly. Also, Kakshi realized that Naruto's assessment of their team was entirely correct. Sasuke was the most skilled, Sakura knew the basics almost perfectly but was horribly below average besides that, and Naruto's only real skill was his ability to use Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.

"Alright Naruto, we'll do training today, you win." Kakashi nodded and turned to lead them to a training ground.

As they followed, Naruto turned to Sakura,

"Sorry about that Sakura-chan, I just wanted to convince him to train us." Naruto smiled.

"Save it, jerk." Sakura brushed him off and walked faster.

- - -

And thus, Kakashi began training the team. Mostly just some simple chakra control exercises and basic taijutsu training. It wasn't long before Naruto spoke up,

"Sensei, these are barely more than warm-ups, what about _real_ training." Naruto complained.

"What do you want from me Naruto? You want me to teach you an S-Rank forbidden jutsu so you can kill yourself? Go steal another scroll if you're that desperate!" Kakashi snapped. Naruto cringed slightly at the harsh reprimand. He hadn't expected Kakashi to be so angry. Kakashi himself realized he had said too much, but he wanted the conversation to be over so he left it at that.

After a few more exercises Kakashi took out his Icha-Icha book while they continued training on their own with the instructions he had given. Naruto took the chance to take matters into his own hands.

"Hey Sakura-chan, wanna spar with me?" He asked.

"What, so you can ruin _my _face too?" She glared.

"N-no! I would never hurt you!" Naruto replied earnestly. Sakura looked at him, and decided that given how often he annoyed her by asking her out he probably meant it.

"Why?" She asked, still not wanting to say yes.

"So I can help you train." Naruto answered, "it's not like Sasuke will train with you."

"How do _you _know?!" Sakura glared intensely.

"Because you already asked him twice and you're still training on your own." Naruto explained.

"Y-you saw that..." Sakura twitched. She glanced at Sasuke one last time, and then turned back to Naruto, "fine." She gave in.

"Alright let's start." Naruto took a stance.

After only two minutes, Sakura realized that Naruto was much better than she expected. She had always thought of him as some loser who just flailed around in battle and relied on clones to get the job done. Naruto on the other hand realized that Sakura quite simply _sucked _at taijutsu. Sure she had the basics down to a T, but after his fight with Sasuke he knew that what Sakura knew wouldn't be anywhere near good enough in the long run.

"That's enough." Naruto said a minute later.

"Don't be lazy we just started." Sakura scowled.

"There's no point, you can't learn anymore like this." Naruto said.

"Well then I guess I should just move on to something else." Sakura said pridefully.

"No, you still suck, but you've already memorized the basics so I'm gonna teach you new stuff." Naruto said boldly.

"What was that!?" Sakura glared at him murderously.

"It's true, the academy taijutsu training is just a stepping stone, you need to improve upon it." Naruto explained, "I'm not saying I'm a master of taijutsu or anything, but I'm sure I can help you at least a little."

"Do you even _have_ a fighting style?" Sakura raised an eyebrow.

"Err, well, not really. I just try to react to my opponent." Naruto admitted.

"See? So what the hell can you teach me, baka?!" Sakura glared.

"This. Take your stance." Naruto looked at her, his face serious, if not just a little annoyed at the way she was talking to him. Sakura noticed this and decided to obey, "now, Sakura, what would you do if I did _this._" Naruto asked and threw a simple punch.

Sakura blocked, as she was taught in the academy; she threw her arm up and knocked the blow aside. What she didn't expect was Naruto to quickly follow up on his first move. His other hand came forward and slammed into her blocking arm, knocking her off balance and leaving her open. After that all it took Naruto was a kick to her left ankle to take her off her feet.

"See? Your reaction time is below average, and I doubt you know how to counter any of the more complicated attacks known by people with more advanced fighting styles." Naruto lectured. Sakura just stared at him from the ground, wide eyed. When the hell had Naruto gotten this skilled and smart?

It took her a moment to realize that Naruto had his hand held out to help her up. She accepted it,

"I... umm... I guess you're right." Sakura sighed.

"It's alright Sakura-chan. I'll help you." Naruto grinned.

"Thanks..." She mumbled.

"What was that?" Naruto teased.

"I said thanks!" Sakura crossed her arms.

"Thought so." Naruto laughed.

"I still hate you." She said with a 'hmph' and turned to walk off.

"Wh-wha?" Naruto looked at her, completely confused. Not able to comprehend female thought patterns. After all, what young boy could?

- - -

After the training session, Naruto headed home. He was underwhelmed by Kakashi's efforts to train them, but he figured he could pick up the slack if he had to. After all, he was getting better fast enough for all of them right? He realized then though that he shouldn't be getting better that fast, he hadn't been training, he had been dealing with D-Rank missions for the last week or so.

"Why _am_ I getting better?" Naruto asked himself, looking down at his hands ponderously.

_'Because you are.'_ He suddenly heard. He stopped, startled, looking around for the source until he realized it was coming form his head again.

"N-not again!" He clutched his head. What was worse, it was a different voice, older and male, more raspy.

_'Do not argue with strength and knowledge. Embrace it.' _Now he was seeing things, as a spectral form was leaning on a wall before him, the source of the voice. It was an older man of about 40 in a green cloak. He had mid length stringy brown hair and 5 o' clock shadow. His eyes were a pale gray, almost hollow in appearance.

"Wh-who are you?" Naruto asked nervously, rather spooked by the man's ghostlike appearance. Naruto hated ghosts.

_'I am nothing but something. I am no-one.' _He replied cryptically.

"What the hell does that mean!?" Naruto shouted.

_'I will be the knowledge you have lacked. And you've already met the strength you wanted.' _

"The strength I..." Naruto muttered, "Wait, you mean the other voice that made me hurt Sasuke?" He asked.

_'If you wish to call her that.'_ The man nodded.

Suddenly Naruto heard other voices, but they weren't in his head,

"Look at him, he's talking to a wall!" "Stay away from him son, he's not right in the head." "Freak..." Were just some of the things people watching were saying.

"Crap." Naruto groaned. Wanting to avoid any more ridicule, he ran as fast as he could towards home.

He wished he could run away from himself.

* * *

**And that be chapter one. Are things going well for our hero? Some might say yes for the most part. We'll just have to see now won't we? Even I don't know exactly where this will lead.**

**You'll notice a few changes in Naruto. Smarter, stronger, and more willing to say what's on his mind. I won't give too much away, but that's just the start of it all. The tip o' the iceberg. The... the... something else that means what I've already said.**

**Lastly I just want to say this is already looking to be the my most challenging fic ever. I guess that's why it's called a "challenge fic." So leave me a review to tell me how I did!!**

**Til' next time.**


	2. See Right Through You

**Never had any problems, but no I do not own Naruto. Think I'd be writing fan fics if I did? **

**In other words, I can't think of much to put here.**

**Enjoy your fanfictiony treat.**

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**See Right Through You**

"Hey Naruto, are you busy?" Sakura asked Naruto.

"Huh, uhh, not really, why?" Naruto asked back. Naruto didn't really have much to do that day, as it was their one day off from working with Kakashi. These days were both welcome breaks from D-Rank _hell_ and sources of much boredom as Naruto usually couldn't find much to occupy himself. He certainly didn't run into Sakura very often on his days off. He hated to admit it, but he was pretty sure it was because she didn't _want _to run into him.

"You said you'd help me right?" She reminded him.

"Yeah, of course." Naruto nodded.

"Well then come on, I know you probably just sit around doing nothing every Sunday." Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Well... kinda..." Naruto shrugged. Sure it was mostly true, but she didn't have to say it like that, he was offering to help her train!

"Then let's go!" She snapped and literally dragged him to a training ground.

Once at the training area Naruto began teaching her things. Mostly it would be him trying new ways to get past her defenses. Sadly he almost always succeeded. Whenever he did he would help Sakura figure out a way to defend herself from that particular move and moves like it. His hope was that eventually Sakura would learn to naturally adapt and be able to defend herself, even if she was up against a style she'd never seen before.

After a few hours, painful hours in Sakura's case, she began to show signs of improvement. Considering where she had started, it was rather impressive. A testament to her ability to learn. She _had_ been one of the top students back in the academy.

"You learn fast Sakura-chan." Naruto grinned.

"Of course I do! I'm smart." She replied a bit snobbishly.

"R-right." Naruto chuckled nervously, not wanting to point out that she had a _long_ way to go. "That's good for today, if we overdo it you won't be able to move in the morning. In fact you'll probably have trouble walking home."

"I'll be fine." Sakura said.

"I'm sure, but I could walk you home if you want." Naruto offered.

"I said I'll be fine!" Sakura scowled.

"Well... if you say so." Naruto sighed. He had been _trying _to be nice. He hated to admit it, but sometimes Sakura made that hard. Hell, he hated to admit _a lot _of things when it came to Sakura. But she was so damn pretty he couldn't help it. The green eyes and pink hair were such a unique combination.

With the training over, Sakura headed home. Part of her regretted turning down his offer as her legs were rather sore. For nearly an hour Naruto had exploited just how bad she was at defending low attacks, and thus her legs had been kicked and knocked out from under her repeatedly. However, there was no way she'd been seen with Naruto like that – no way in hell.

**. . .**

As time went on, it was the usual cycle of piratically pointless missions and not-frequent-enough training sessions. Yes, more frequent than they used to be, but still. Kakashi didn't see the point in more training. Naruto was improving at a disturbing rate, and even Sakura was getting better. And as usual, Sasuke was just fine. Naruto's only salvation was that he got to spend more time with Sakura when they trained together.

One day in particular stood out though. A lot.

"Hey Sakura-chan, we finished early today, wanna get ramen with me?" Naruto asked with a grin. The three of them had just finished painting some old shed that he wasn't sure the owner even used anymore. But as the Hokage constantly reminded them, even these lowly missions were an important part of the village's economy... or something.

"Every time you convince us to eat with you it's ramen." Sakura replied in disgust.

"Fine, you pick I'll pay, I just wanna do something with you." Naruto shrugged, though her remark killed his grin.

"No." Sakura denied him, "I'm gonna do something with Sasuke-kun. Right Sasuke-kun?" Sakura quickly latched herself to the Uchiha's arm.

"Fine." Sasuke muttered. However, he shot a smirk at Naruto, knowing that it must be getting under his teammate's skin. They didn't realize that they had just placed the final, over-burdening straw on the camel's back.

"You know what, screw you guys." Naruto growled. This surprised his two teammates. "You always do this, one way or another, and for no reason." He balled his hands into fists. "You're terrible Sasuke, you know that? You tried to hide that you were just depressed and lonely because your clan is dead by being arrogant and cocky! All people saw was some cool kid who could get any girl he wanted, but the thing is you really have become an arrogant prick! You've even exploited your heritage!" He snapped, and then turned his glare upon Sakura. "And _you_! I've been nice to you, helped you, at times practically worshiped you and you've done nothing but hit me, insult, and brush me off! I don't even get why I like you anymore! All you do is fawn over this prick because you seem to think if you get Sasuke to pick you it'll mean something! You're just doing it to compensate for your insecurities! Do you even _like_ him? You think they'll give you the same revered look they give him? Because it's not gonna work, eventually people will realize you're just a fake, _an attention whore_!" He shouted at them, releasing all his pent up anger and frustration in one scalding rant.

When he was done he just stood there, panting, so emotional his entire body trembled. After a few moments he realized just what he had said. He saw the shocked, pained looks on his teammates' faces, and instantly regretted it.

"Naruto.... you... you... I HATE YOU!" Sakura screamed at him, and ran off sobbing. Sasuke's reaction took a bit longer. He stood there, shaking, eyes shut tightly. When his eyes opened Naruto actually took a step back. There was just so much anger and hatred in his gaze. He didn't even try to duck when Sasuke punched him off his feet.

"If you ever, _ever_ say something like that again, I will _kill_ you!" Sasuke roared. "Stay. Away. From me." He growled and stomped off.

The thing was, and both Sasuke and Sakura realized this deep down, that Naruto was right about them. Sasuke had put up a front, he didn't want people to see his pain. Sakura had picked Sasuke because that same front he had put up had turned him into someone that anyone would be jealous of. She figured all those years of ridicule over something as stupid as her forehead would be washed away if she got him. They had both become someone that they weren't because they didn't want to be who they were. The thing is who they had become was an ugly lie.

**. . .**

When Kakashi arrived, late as usual, he found that his team was mostly missing. Wondering for a moment if he was actually early he thought for a moment, but decided he was definitely late.

"Naruto, why are you the only one here?" Kakashi asked. Naruto looked up at Kakashi, his expression pained, but didn't answer. After a moment the boy turned his gaze back at the ground. "Naruto, answer me." Kakashi ordered.

"I... I... did something." Naruto muttered. Kakashi instantly became worried after what had happened last time,

"What, what did you do?" Kakashi demanded an answer as his mind considered all the horrible things Naruto might have done.

"I think they both hate me now. Not just because I annoyed them... they really hate me..." Naruto's voice began breaking.

"Why?"

"I said things. They were blowing me off like usual, but this time I just snapped. I yelled at them. Somehow I knew exactly what to say to hurt them." Naruto sniffled.

"What did you say to them, give me the short version." Kakashi said. He was relieved though that Naruto hadn't _killed_ them or something like that.

"I told Sasuke he was being a jerk to hide the fact that he was depressed over having no family and then I told Sakura that she was being an attention whore..." Naruto hung his head in shame. Kakashi was actually shocked by this. Mostly because he had never thought Naruto would say such terrible things, and especially not to Sakura.

"I can see why they didn't show up..." Kakashi nodded.

"The thing is, I don't know how I knew that about them, it's just I was angry and wanted to say something, and it just came to me." Naruto explained, doing his best not to completely break down. He just felt so guilty, and afraid he'd lost the closest thing he had to friends.

"I see." Kakashi crossed his arms thoughtfully.

"There's one other thing." Naruto said after a moment.

"What?" Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow.

"I heard another voice a few days ago. I even saw something this time." Naruto began, though he lied about the length of time that had passed. It had actually been over two weeks. "I saw a man in a cloak, but he was see-through, like a ghost."

"What did he say to you?" Kakashi asked, becoming more and more disturbed by the second.

"He told me that I should be glad all this is happening because it's making me stronger." Naruto explained.

"Alright Naruto, just go home, there's no point in being here if the rest of your team isn't showing. I have things I need to do anyway." Kakashi said. Naruto just nodded somberly and began to slowly walk home.

**. . .**

"Thank you for your time Hokage-sama, this is important." Kakashi said as he sat across from the Sandaime, Sarutobi Hiruzen.

"Yes, you said it was about Naruto?" Hiruzen asked. "I trust he is alright?"

"I'm not sure actually. Physically yes, but mentally... like I said, I'm not sure." Kakashi shook his head.

"What do you mean?" Hiruzen leaned forward on his desk, a look of concern on his face.

"He says he's hearing voices, and he nearly killed Sasuke in a fight." Kakashi paced as he explained. "And now he says he's even seeing things."

"That's... troubling." Hiruzen sighed. "How is he dealing with this?"

"He's different, not as hyperactive, and the strangest part is his abilities as a ninja are improving rapidly, too rapidly. I'm afraid if another fight happens he might seriously hurt someone." Kakashi replied, shaking his head.

"I'm not sure what to tell you Kakashi, I've never heard of anything like this, and I've heard of a lot of things." Hiruzen muttered, not looking at Kakashi. His mind was wandering, searching through the vast archives of knowledge it contained. He came up with nothing.

Kakashi took a deep breath before he spoke again. "I... want Naruto taken off my team, I don't trust him anymore. I told him to come to me right away if something like this happened, and he waited _days_ before he told me about the second incident, beyond that his actions are threatening to tear the team apart, Sasuke and Sakura didn't even show up today."

"That's a very serious request Kakashi, what exactly did Naruto do?" Hiruzen raised an eyebrow.

"He said he yelled at them, he didn't tell me what he said word for word, but it was hurtful enough for them not to show up. He even brought up Sasuke's clan apparently." Kakashi explained. "It might not seem like much, but that combined with him hearing voices that tell him to attack people, I just don't want things to escalate."

"Yes, I can understand that, but I want to talk to Naruto before I commit to anything." Hiruzen nodded. "I'll send someone for Naruto, thank you for telling me all this. You are dismissed." Kakashi nodded in reply and left. He was a bit disappointed, hoping that he could have gotten Naruto removed from his team then and there. The Kyuubi was bad enough, but mental instability was another thing. While he wished Naruto could just be normal, he certainly hoped all this reallywasjust mental instability. The alternatives were just too unpleasant.

**. . .**

Not much later, in the same place, Naruto showed up for his own meeting with the Hokage.

"What's up old man?" Naruto asked, though with none of the usual vigor. Hiruzen suppressed his annoyance at Naruto's refusal to use manners, and quickly got to the point.

"Kakashi came to me with some concerns about you." Hiruzen said. "Is there anything you want to say before I go on?"

"Ummm, no?" Naruto shrugged.

"Alright then." Hiruzen sighed. "So, first off, you've been hearing voices?"

"You just think I'm insane don't you?" Naruto said in a monotone.

"Well I won't know for certain unless you talk to me." Hiruzen replied neutrally.

"Fine." Naruto grumbled. "But I have a question first."

"Fair enough, what?" Hiruzen asked.

"How long have you been hiding dirty magazines in your desk?" Naruto asked plainly. Hiruzen nearly coughed up a lung,

"Wh-what are you talking about!" He denied it.

"Bikini Babes Monthly?" Naruto raised an eyebrow.

". . . how do you know about that?" Hiruzen eyed the boy warily.

"I dunno." Naruto shrugged, "I just kinda had a feeling."

"I... see..." Hiruzen said, "I don't suppose voices told you?"

"No." Naruto crossed his arms in annoyance.

"Alright then. But I don't think Kakashi would have wasted my time, so I want you to tell me what's going on." Hiruzen said as he pulled a small stack of adult magazines out of his desk and threw them in the trash. He'd incinerate them later.

Naruto sighed, and told the Hokage what he'd told Kakashi, "There, are you happy? I told you all about the voices, you can brand me as insane if you want. Not like anyone's opinion of me can get any worse." He grumbled. "Not like I'll lose my friends over it, I don't _have _any."

"Don't worry Naruto, I don't think you're insane. However, I also have no explanation for these voices, but whether they are real or not, it doesn't seem to be otherwise effecting your mental capacity as far as I can tell." Hiruzen said. "As for your teammates, and yes Kakashi told me about that, don't lose hope. If you truly care about them, they'll realize this eventually."

"Maybe..." Naruto muttered dejectedly. However, it was nice to know the Hokage didn't think he'd gone bat-shit. Even if he himself wasn't sure.

"Trust me Naruto, now go home and rest, it sounds like that might do you some good. It'll give you time to think." Hiruzen gave him a reassuring smile.

"Right... think..." Naruto sighed as he left. Thinking was the last thing he wanted to do. To most the meeting would have seemed mostly normal. To Naruto it had been disturbing, as he had no idea how the hell he'd known about the hidden magazines. Things were just beginning to pile up, and he was hating every moment of it.

**. . .**

Kakashi was almost relieved to see that his whole team had arrived. Almost, because he had been hoping Naruto wouldn't be there. The Hokage had told him that he'd be keeping Naruto, but that he should also keep an eye on him.

"Alright guys, are we going to have any problems? Naruto told me what happened." Kakashi said, instantly causing Sakura and Sasuke to glare at Naruto. The glares didn't last long as they couldn't bear to look at him.

"If he stays a few feet away from me I'll try not to kill him." Sasuke muttered.

"Same." Sakura said. Naruto just hung his head and moved away from the two.

"Well then, let's get started." Kakashi sighed. This wasn't going to be a fun day.

**. . .**

The days blurred together after a while. Day after day of dirty looks from his teammates and feeling like shit. Even Kakashi didn't seem to want to be near him. Naruto couldn't take it much longer, but what the hell could he do? However, his plight hadn't gone unnoticed. A certain Hyuuga girl had noticed his rapidly deteriorating mood.

Hinata, as she often did, was following Naruto from a distance. In the past there had been moments when Naruto would be sad. In the academy he had often sat alone on the single swing in the academy yard with such a lonely look on his face. Right now he looked worse.

Hinata took a deep breath, she had to do _something_ she didn't like seeing Naruto this sad. She attempted to approach Naruto, only to suddenly lose all her courage and quickly dart around a corner. She hated being so shy, she couldn't even talk to Naruto without feeling like her heart was going to explode.

Suddenly she heard a sigh. "Hinata, I know you're there, you can stop hiding." It was Naruto. Hinata stiffened, face glowing red in embarrassment.

Hinata slowly went back around the corner and found herself face to face with Naruto, instantly raising her body temperature by a few hundred degrees. "I-I... umm... h-hi..." She stuttered nervously, feeling a bit lightheaded.

"Are you OK? You look sick..." Naruto muttered. Hinata quickly shook her head in response,

"N-no, I'm fine." She said as she nervously pushed the tips of her pointer fingers together. _"This is it, I have to say something..." _She thought and took a deep breath.

"Well, bye, I'm heading home." Naruto shrugged and turned to head off.

"Wait!" Hinata practically shouted.

"What?" Naruto looked back at her, sighing. He didn't feel like talking to a girl who couldn't speak normally at the moment.

"Y-you look upset, i-is everything OK?" Hinata managed to ask. She was going to talk to him even if her heart gave out on her! Sadly that was seeming like a strong possibility at the moment...

"I'm fine." Naruto grumbled. "Bye." He turned to walk away, shoving his hands into his pockets.

""Y-you're lying!" Hinata said, actually putting some force into her voice. Naruto glanced back at her, startled somewhat by the shy girl's actions.

"What do you want from me Hinata, I'm having a bad _month_." He growled. Mentally he was kicking himself for the way he was talking to her, but he wanted to be left alone.

"I-I... umm." Hinata wasn't sure how to respond to that. What was she supposed to say? The truth to her sounded too embarrassing to say out loud.

"Well?" Naruto crossed his arms.

"I want you to talk to me!" Hinata blurted out. Naruto's eyes widened a little,

"You... want me to talk to you?" He repeated. "Why?"

"B-because... I don't... l-like seeing people unhappy..." Hinata mumbled quietly, her face growing redder if that was even possible. It wasn't entirely the truth. She didn't like to watch people suffer sure, but especially so if Naruto's case. She just figured if she said it that way, she'd probably faint from embarrassment. Naruto just sighed again,

"I don't want to talk about it, OK?" Naruto looked away.

"Y-you might f-feel better if you do." Hinata suggested.

"How is talking about what made me unhappy in the first place gonna make me feel better?" Naruto frowned, not seeing the logic in it. Hinata took a risk on what she decided to say next,

"W-well... have you ever t-talked to anyone about things before?" She asked.

"I... well..." Naruto thought about that. To be honest the only person he'd ever really been comfortable with was his teacher Iruka, but he had never really confided in the man. And while he had told Kakashi and the Hokage, he had felt like he was being interrogated at the times. Could just talking about it for the sake of talking about it really help? "Alright, fine." Naruto gave in. He looked and found a rooftop that they could easily jump to and motioned for Hinata to follow him up.

Once on the rooftop, the two sat down next to each other. For a minute, neither said anything, but finally Naruto began speaking,

"You wanted to know why I'm in a bad mood?" He asked, and Hinata nodded. "Well here it is. I offered to help train Sakura, and she agreed, so I figured maybe she would even hang out with me a bit. She said no to that."

"Th-that's not fair." Hinata sympathized. Naruto just shook his head,

"The thing is I'm used to that by now, it's not what really set me off." He sighed. "She said she was going to do something with Sasuke instead, which annoyed me, but whatever, she's always been like that. The thing is, I can tell Sasuke doesn't really like her, but he agreed anyway, and then he just looked at me. He only agreed to piss me off. It's just so messed up I can't stand it!" He growled, clutching his head. The memory of what came next was the worst.

"That's.... horrible." Hinata felt so bad for him, she felt like _she_ was going to cry. However, she fought that, figuring her breaking down crying wouldn't help Naruto.

"I'm the horrible one." Naruto whispered.

"Wh-what do you mean, th-they were the one's being cruel!" Hinata argued, not understanding what he meant.

"It's what I said after that. I didn't just yell at them, I figured out the things that would hurt them the most and used it against them. I even brought up Sasuke's clan. No matter what they were doing, that was too much!" Naruto shut his eyes tightly, trembling, "I'm worse than he is for that..."

Hinata didn't know what to say now. She felt like she could only watch as Naruto suffered from in regret. She had always admired how Naruto always managed to shrug off his loneliness and keep going, and now to see this tore at her. She decided she had to do something, and then tentatively raised her hand and put it on his shoulder. Naruto seemed a little surprised at this and looked at Hinata curiously.

"N-Naruto, th-that's not true." Hinata said, blushing madly and doing her best to stay focused.

"What isn't true?" Naruto asked, confused.

"Y-you're not a b-bad person for saying that i-if you regret it." Hinata replied, taking a deep breath. "The d-difference between y-you as Sasuke is that h-he intended to be hurtful without regret."

Naruto's eyes widened upon hearing Hinata's words. He hadn't thought of it that way. "I guess so, but even if I regret it, that doesn't make it any less hurtful. I still said it." He sighed.

"H-have you tried apologizing?" Hinata asked, as if it was really that simple.

"Why bother, he'll never forgive me, there's no point." Naruto muttered dejectedly.

"I-if you really mean it wh-when you apologize, then that's all that matters. I-it's worse if you d-don't." Hinata assured him. Naruto thought about it for a few moments, and then nodded.

"That makes sense, you're pretty smart Hinata. You should stop creeping around, it makes you look weird." He smiled slightly.

"Wh-what!" Hinta shrank back in embarrassment.

"Yeah, you're always sneaking around and hiding behind things. Why?" Naruto cocked his head to the side.

"I... uhh... w-well... I'm j-just not a p-people p-person." Hinata put her pointer fingers together again, like she usually did when she was especially embarrassed.

"Trying to avoid conversations?" Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"I... I guess so." Hinata looked away. It was a blatant lie of course, she only hid when she was following Naruto around. In hindsight, she realized she probably did seem like a stalker or something.

"Well, then I'll stop torturing you." Naruto chucked lightly. "I need to think about what you've said anyway." He said and stood up. "We should talk again sometime though, maybe you'll get used to conversations and you want have to sneak around so much."

"I-I think I'd l-like that." Hinata couldn't help but smile. She'd never felt so happy before!

"Bye!" Naruto nodded and jumped down from the rooftop.

"Bye... Naruto-kun..." Hianta whispered, even though she knew he couldn't hear.

**. . .**

"And this concerns me why?" An older man with most of his head covered in bandages asked. A dark meeting was taking place deep below the village in an area very few ever ventured into.

"Well, Danzo-sama, I figured such a significant change in the Kyuubi's jinchuriki would be something you'd want to know." The ninja before Danzo replied, kneeling in respect.

"I suppose." Danzo sighed, but then squinted slightly in thought. Old as he was, experience had only sharpened his mind, not dulled it. "Yes, this _could_ prove useful knowledge perhaps. You are dismissed." He waved his ROOT minion away.

Danzo leaned against a nearby wall, thinking. So Naruto's mind was eroding was it? Hearing voices and wild outbursts. For now, it wasn't much, but what would it lead to? For now he would simply contemplate how this could affect him, or perhaps how he could use this to his advantage.

**. . .**

It was the end of another emotionally uncomfortable training day. Naruto glanced at Sasuke while said Uchiha wasn't looking, considering what Hinata had told him. He began to take a step towards his teammate, but then halted. He just couldn't bring himself to do it. He hated to admit it, but part of him was scared of how Sasuke might react. No part of him could think of a positive outcome occurring from apologizing.

Naruto shifted his thoughts then to Sakura, as he definitely owed her an apology too.

"_Do you really?" _A voice suddenly spoke, causing Naruto's eyes to widen.

"_No! Not again, leave me alone!" _Naruto screamed in his mind.

"_They torture you without thinking about it. They don't even truly know you, but they have already decided your place in their lives. The accumulated tortures they've inflicted have earned them far worse than your simple outburst." _The voice continued. It was another new voice, male, but younger and softer than the apparition that he had seen, though this one was not currently visible.

"_I don't care! They're the closest thing I have to friends, I don't want them to hate me, I have enough people that hate me!" _Naruto argued, doing his best to keep his emotions in check, but largely failing.

"_They do not see you as friends. You have survived this long without friends. You'll be stronger without them. You cannot feel the pain of loss if there is nothing to lose!"_ At this, Naruto stiffened. Not only was he shocked at the callousness, but also, he was surprised that for a moment, he had truly considered its words.

"_No, I'll never be like that! I won't go back to being alone!" _Naruto said, a tear managing to break free and roll down his cheek.

"_. . . very well. . . If that is your choice, it will be up to you to live with any regret or grief." _And with that, the voice was mercifully silent. At this, Naruto noticed that he had been walking the entire time, and was now no longer near his teammates.

"Dammit, I need to find Sakura..." Naruto shook his head in an attempt to clear it. He then looked around to orient himself, and then took off, hoping he could intercept his female teammate before she got home.

It didn't take him long to find her. Taking every shortcut he knew, which meant going from rooftop to rooftop whenever he could, he easily got ahead of Sakura who was walking.

"H-hey Sakura." Naruto said, unable to even feign his usual enthusiasm at the moment.

"Ugh, Naruto, what do _you_ want? I think it should be obvious even to a retard like you that I don't want to even be within fifty feet of you unless I absolutely have to!" She growled at him harshly.

"I... wanted to apologize. I went way too far." Naruto hung his head. Her words just then stung, and he was already hurting at the moment.

"Just figuring that out now?" Sakura hissed, glaring intensely. It took everything Naruto had to keep himself calm. There was a part of him where anger was suddenly just building up, and it felt scarily similar to when he had snapped.

"I know you hate me, but I hope you at least know me well enough to know I'd never want to hurt you, or anyone like that." Naruto clenched his fists, not in anger, but to attempt to keep himself from breaking down. Sakura didn't respond immediately to that. She wanted to just blow him off, maybe even hit him to make herself feel better... maybe even twice. However, his words rang true.

"So then why did you say what you did? Hm? And why the hell do you care? I thought you didn't like me anymore. I mean, who _would _like an _attention whore_?" She crossed her arms, still glaring.

"I-I..." Naruto stepped back, feeling all the guilt rush back and crash over him.

"I suppose I should be glad that during that rant you didn't bring up my damn forehead huh? Should I forgive you just because of that! Or maybe you'd like to amend that right now!" She shouted at him. "Because you can! Go ahead, according to you I deserve it!"

"No..." Was Naruto's only reply.

"No?" Sakura raised an eyebrow.

"You don't deserve that. I understand Sakura, and you should too." Naruto gave her a sad look. "I'm sorry." And with that, he walked away.

"Understand what!" Sakura called after him, but got no response. "Jeez, first he's annoying, then he's a jerk, and now he's just weird!" She grumbled. She then decided to just forget it all and head home.

The thing was though, she couldn't forget it all. For one, he hadn't added -chan to the end of her name. She had no idea why that stuck out so much to her. But what really stuck with her... _"You don't deserve that."_ He had said that. She had always known it was true, what had she ever done to be tortured over something as stupid as her forehead?

It just felt strange having someone like Naruto, someone she hated and had not long ago screamed at her, suddenly say some thing so... compassionate.

**. . .**

Sleep didn't come easy that night. Naruto's racing thoughts seemed to constantly scare it away. His apology to Sakura had gone horribly. He had come so close to yelling at her again. But at least he had said it. Part of him was actually proud of himself and felt better and even hoped that maybe it would eventually hit Sakura that he was really sorry. Then another part of him recalled her rage and the guilt would come back. And the anger, the anger was always there, at the very edge of his mind. It would occasionally flare just a little, as if knocking to remind him that it was there.

Finally, sleep seemed to come. But not just yet.

"**You humans are far too fragile, kit." **A frightening voice boomed.

"Wh-what? Who are you! LEAVE ME ALONE ALREADY!" Naruto actually felt a bit like crying now.

"**Be calm kit, I am not one of those other voices. I actually have form. In fact you already know me, you just don't recognize me yet." **

"I... know you?" Naruto asked, curious now. What was more, he realized he was not in his room anymore. He was in a strange, dank, and dark sewer.

"**I helped you defeat that pathetic ice user Haku. Did you think that was your own power?"**

"The red chakra?" Naruto recalled the fight well. However, a few things were a bit vague, as if at one point his mind had flown away, if only for a short time.

"**Hmph, is that how you remember me? I am the Kyuubi, the highest of the demons! I have been with you since birth."**

"Demon! Th-that's what people have called _me_ before." Naruto said, his entire body starting to tremble. Had they all been right?

"**HA! You are no demon, no demon would be so soft and weak as you! I am within you, but we are very separate beings. You can rest easy about that." **Naruto could have sworn he _heard_ it smirk.

"So... what do you want then?" Naruto asked, actually a bit relieved now.

"**Those voices... even I do not know what they are, and I know much. They annoy me, but the last one is right. Just look at yourself. You are writhing inside, and all because of that human bitch."**

"SHUT UP! Don't talk about her like that!" Naruto growled. He was surprised that the demon actually went silent for a moment.

"**Heh... heheh... HAHAHAHAHA! So you do have teeth. You are an odd human, kit. You're all wound up about her, but still you can draw strength from your attachment to her. Such bonds are foolish, they weaken you as much as they strangely seem to strengthen you. Beware kit, you really should sever all such bonds. I want my host to be strong."**

"I'll give you the same answer I gave that damn voice. No." Naruto defied the demon. He heard the demon growl angrily, but then it went silent again, thought not permanently.

"**. . . venture forth, kit. We should finish this eye to eye." **Suddenly, a light seemed to flicker on, and then another. A path of lights eventually appeared before him, leading him through the sewer until he reached a large, water filled chamber with a huge gate in it.

"Where are you, in jail?" Naruto asked, confused.

"_**You**_** are my jail, kit. These bars represent that." **The demon spoke, and then a pair of red, glowing eyes appeared beyond the bars of the gate. **"See that seal?" **Indeed Naruto did, it seemed like it was the only thing holding the huge gates shut, despite that it was barely bigger than his hand.** "It is the same as the one on your stomach. If you were to tear it up right now, the one on your stomach would be gone as well, and I would be free. Of course, I'm honestly not sure what would happen to you. Probably nothing good."**

"Well then I'm definitely not letting you out!" Naruto shuddered. "You nearly destroyed my village last time you were out!"

**"Yes, an interesting story that, but one for another time." **The Kyuubi growled. **"I'm on your side, kit. I'm stuck within you, and our lives are bound. I know you'll never let me out, and I've accepted that. Instead, I will help you, if only to help myself at the same time. Through you, I may be able to alleviate my own torture. To begin, I advise you to **_**not**_** listen to those voices. You do not need them, you don't even know what they are. I however, am easily recognizable. In any capacity those voices were able to actually help you, I can easily surpass. Trust only in me, and you will be strong. With my help, you will have the respect you deserve." **The demon said temptingly, grinning widely.

"The... respect I deserve?" Naruto asked, eyes wide in wonderment.

"**But of course! You trapped me kit, you saved your village. And yet they hate you! We will prove them wrong!"** The Kyuubi roared, as if he was Naruto's coach, trying to motivate him.

"Y-yeah..." Naruto nodded. He felt overwhelmed. Part of him screamed to be cautious, but the rest of him was drinking the Kyuubi's words up greedily, like a man lost in the desert for weeks who had finally found water. The rush of emotions made him feel woozy and lightheaded.

"**Rest now kit, your mind needs time. Just remember what I've said. Remember what you deserve!"**

**

* * *

**

**Well then. The Kyuubi's being awfully nice, now isn't he? **

**Can't think of much to say, so I'll respond to the few who bothered to leave a review. It'll feel like we're talking!**

**Actionliker: Hm, a man who clearly likes a good brawl (judging by your name of course). Glad you liked it... A LOT!**

**Geetac: Good to hear, hope you liked your more, and will like any future moreness I produce.**

**Soulblazer87: Woo, 100% ftw!**

**Argonisgema: It will go until it is done... unless I get bored. Glad you liked it.**

**Dusk Ado: Ah, now you're getting to the heart of it! I like an intelligently written review! I hope you'll remain just as curious all the way until the end. Also, I'd like to say your review is what made me get off my ass and finish this chapter. Thank you for taking the time.**

**Thanks to all of you in fact, and thank you those who have not but hopefully will review in the future. I read everyone of them and always appreciate them. Til' next time.**


	3. Finding A Light In The Darkness

**Alright, now I'm getting into this fic. I have a pretty good idea where I'm going with it, but at the same time I'm confused about how I'm going to get there. Ah but that's my problem, not yours. You just worry about not overdosing on my awesome writing. Heheh.**

**Since we have a lot of different talks happening, here's a guide:**

(_Italics are for any talking that happens in peoples minds. Like the mysterious voices and thinking._

_**Bold italics are for inner beings like inner Sakura and the Kyuubi if he ever talks while Naruto is awake.**_

**Regular bold is for demons when they talk to their host face to face, like when Naruto talks the the Kyuubi in the sewer.**

And boring normal text is for people and summons who are talking out loud.**)**

**Now, here's a response to the first person to review chapter 2:**

**Actionliker: Hmm, I wouldn't exactly call them spoiled, but they certainly aren't being nice. Thanks for your response.**

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**Finding A Light In The Darkness**

Naruto was like the living dead. He felt like he was just observing life, not participating in it. Sure, his body went through the motions, but his mind was always elsewhere. It was like watching a movie, sometimes he'd think back and only have vague memories of what he'd seen and done. Worse, sometimes he'd have no memories whatsoever, and find himself standing somewhere in the village with no memory of how he'd gotten there.

Even when he'd realize he'd just experienced a black out, his mind would just wander off again, trying to remember what he'd done, and why it kept happening. It was a vicious cycle. He just had so many things on his mind now. The Kyuubi, the voices, Sakura and Sasuke, and where his life was going from here with all the things that were effecting him.

"Hey, come on Naruto! Are you sick or something?" A voice finally snapped Naruto out of his thoughts. He shook his head to clear it and looked around. He realized he was at Ichiraku's, and it was Teuchi who was speaking to him.

"Huh! S-sorry, spaced out I guess." Naruto chuckled nervously.

"I asked you what you wanted at least three times! My ramen not good enough to hold your attention anymore?" Teuchi crossed his arms suspiciously, scowling.

"N-no! Your ramen is the best in the world as far as I'm concerned!" Naruto denied the accusation quickly. "I... just have a lot on my mind these days."

"It's fine Naruto, I was kidding anyway. If you want you can talk to me about it. You know, sometimes it almost feels like having another child with you around so often. I'm just glad I don't have to change your diapers!" Teuchi laughed heartily.

"Heh, I outgrew those a long time ago!" Naruto grinned.

"I would certainly hope so. Ninjas certainly shouldn't be wearing those. Now go on, tell me what's troubling you." Teuchi leaned against the shelf behind him.

"Thanks, but it's nothing really." Naruto shrugged.

"Ha, if I'm too intimidating I'm sure my lovely daughter would be just as willing to listen." Teuchi laughed slightly.

"Daddy!" Said daughter, Ayame, complained from the back of the shop.

"Are you saying you don't care about our favorite customer!" Teuchi called back.

"No..." Ayame poked her head around a corner. "Just don't talk about me like that, it's embarrassing!" She then looked at Naruto. "So what is it? Or are you actually going to order something, I'm getting kind of bored back there..."

"Eh, I'll have the usual I guess." Naruto replied.

"Got it." Ayame disappeared back into the confines of the shop and got to work.

In the end, neither Teuchi nor Ayame could get Naruto to talk. They did manage to get him to eat though. The ramen was delicious, as it always was.

**. . .**

The day after the incident at the ramen shop, Naruto was in his semi-comatose, autopilot state during a D-Rank mission with his teammates. He snapped out of it for a moment, and something occurred to him. Teuchi had noticed Naruto was acting strange, and then both he and Ayame had been concerned. He was around his team even more, and they hadn't said a thing. Why was that? They were supposed to be a team. They must have noticed his unusual behavior by now. Naruto himself knew he wasn't acting right, he just couldn't help it.

"_Do you see now? Do you see that they only hurt you?"_ It was the soft spoken male voice from before.

"_Dammit, why don't you just leave me alone, this is all your fault in the first place!"_ Naruto shouted back at the invasive voice.

"_Perhaps these events are our doing, but all we have done is allow you to see the truth. Do you not agree?" _

"_Yeah? Well the 'truth' sucks!"_ Naruto growled. _"I was just fine with the way things were!"_

"_No, you were not. Otherwise, we wouldn't be here."_

"_Well... that's... dammit, just go away! I don't need you! LEAVE ME ALONE!" _Naruto waited for another response, but it seemed the voice had decided to listen.

"Naruto... I think it's dead. Move on already." He heard Sakura mutter. He looked down at his hand and saw the weed he had pulled from the garden they were being forced to tend had been smashed flat by his vice-like grip. A grip fueled by his frustration with the voices in his head. Or was it his frustration at the realization that they might be right?

**. . .**

He walked slowly, and he did so because if he walked any faster, he'd probably crash into things. It took him longer to react to the world around him. Probably because he wasn't even paying attention. So much so that his eyes were wide and blank; almost glazed over. So much so that he walked right past Hinata as she did her best to greet him after building up the courage.

Hinata was shocked. He had been so nice before, and now he completely ignored her. Was it some sort of sick joke? Was he actually a cruel person? But no, that didn't make sense. He had been so distraught before over what he had said to his teammates. Hinata turned around to follow him; she wanted to know what was going on.

She quickly managed to catch up with him. He was walking with his head hung slightly, staring at the ground, and arms dangling almost limply at his sides. She realized he seemed even worse than the last time she had seen him. She approached him again,

"N-Naruto?" She stuttered, but got no response. She took a deep breath, and then reached out to touch his shoulder in an attempt to get his attention. She nearly coughed up her heart he jumped so suddenly in surprise.

"Wh-wha! Who's there!" Naruto shook his head. "O-oh, Hinata, didn't see you there..." He laughed nervously.

"I sp-spoke to you twice..." Hinata replied confusedly, wondering why he hadn't noticed her. It was a stark contradiction to last time. Last time he noticed her when she had been hiding, this time she had walked right up to him and he hadn't noticed her.

". . . oh. . ." Naruto sighed, and hung his head. "Sorry..."

"I-is something wrong?" Hinata asked.

"No, nothing for you to worry about." Naruto put up a fake grin to try and assuage any concerns she might have.

"B-but... there is something, isn't there?" Hinata didn't let up.

Naruto sighed again, "Look Hinata, I don't want to bother you with my problems again. I just need to go home and relax." He then turned and tried to walk away. Hinata was too nice of a person, he didn't want to trouble her with his own issues. She'd be better off not hanging around him.

"I-it doesn't w-work that way." Hinata called after him. Naruto turned and looked back at her, confused,

"What doesn't?" He asked.

"Y-you don't want to bother me, b-but this way I'm just going to worry even more b-because I don't know what's w-wrong." Hinata explained.

"W-worry?" Naruto looked a bit surprised. She was worried about him?

"Th-there are two kinds of selfish, Naruto. Th-the kind when people k-keep things to themselves because they're g-greedy...and th-the kind that keep things to themselves b-because they're trying to protect others, b-but they really just make others w-worry even more." Hinata continued. She felt a bit dizzy afterward. She had said a lot more than she was used to saying all at once. Not to mention she was talking to Naruto, and about something so... sensitive.

"And I'm the second kind, right?" Naruto smiled slightly, realizing she was completely right. Hinata nodded.

"Also, y-you said we should talk again... I-I want to talk now." Hinata blushed deeply. She felt uncomfortable being so direct. She was a shy person, and here she was giving it her all to convince Naruto to talk to her.

"Alright, alright, you win." Naruto shook his head in defeat. "For someone who's not a people person, you sure know how to make a really good argument."

"I-I read a lot..." Hinata conceded. It was true, half of that speech had been copied form a book she'd read not too long ago...

"Well, you gotta get your material somewhere." Naruto grinned amusedly. "Come on, we can use the rooftops again." He waved for her to follow him and headed to the rooftops so they could talk alone. Once they were both sitting on the rooftops, Naruto turned to Hinata. "Just one question first."

"Wh-what?" Hinata replied.

"You said you were worried about me... why?" Naruto asked. He found it strange that Hinata would be worried about him, he didn't know her that well. Sure she was a nice person, but why would she worry about him? For some reason the question turned Hianta's face bright red.

"I-I umm, well, umm." Hinata began pushing her pointer fingers together nervously. The only way she could think of to answer that would be revealing that she liked him, and she didn't think she was ready for that.

"Umm?" Naruto leaned over towards Hinata, putting himself in her personal space. Now, last anyone knew, it wasn't possible to turn yourself into a tomato. Not even with the vast array of ninja techniques that had been created over the years. However, Hianta came pretty close as her face turned bright red in response to Naruto getting closer.

Hinata quickly turned away, starting to feel faint. _"Oh, why must I be like this." _She said mentally, wishing she had a spine that wasn't made out of rubber.

"Are you O.K. Hinata?" Naruto asked, thankfully sitting back as he spoke.

"Y-yes." Hinata turned back to him, feeling the ability to _breathe_ returning to her. "Um, w-well, after we talked last time, I-I assumed we were f-friends. Friends w-worry about each other. R-right?" She held in a sigh of relief, glad she had thought of a good answer that didn't reveal too much.

"Oh, yeah, I guess you're right." Naruto nodded. However, now he had a new question. Why did Hinata want to be his friend. No, scratch that, why did she already consider them friends? Sure he'd agreed to talk to her, but still. Nobody else wanted to be his friend, so why Hinata? Then again, he hadn't screamed at Hianta will stabbing at all her most sensitive emotional areas like he had with his teammates...

"M-my turn I guess." Hinata said, taking a deep breath. "Wh-what was b-bothering you?"

Naruto sighed and hung his head, "Do we have to talk about _that_?"

"D-didn't talking h-help last time?" Hinata reminded him.

"Ugh, I guess." Naruto conceded her point. "Alright, but under one condition."

"Huh?" Hinata looked confused, not expecting to have to barter with him over a conversation.

"I get to ask you something else." Naruto said.

Hinata actually giggled slightly, "O.K., b-but making it a condition w-wasn't necessary." She smiled.

"Oh..." Naruto mumbled, feeling a bit stupid.

"So?" Hinata asked, getting back to the original question.

"Right... that..." Naruto sighed again. "Alright, here it is." He thought for a moment, thinking of how he could explain it truthfully but without actually telling the truth. "Well, it's like I have voices in my head." Actually, he did... "And they're all arguing with me, each one wanting me to see things its way, and I can't decide which one is right." Even though they were all saying the same thing: 'screw your teammates, they hate you anyway.'

"A-arguing with you?" Hinata asked, wondering what exactly was going on in Naruto's head.

"Well, you remember what I told you last time, right?" Naruto looked up at the sky, both talking and remembering at the same time.

"Y-yeah." Hinata nodded.

"Well... it's like part of me actually does hate them. I was just angry at the time I guess, but I don't hate them, I don't want to drive them away. But, part of me wants to forget about them..." Naruto just kept staring at the sky as he spoke. "I keep saying no, but the voices always seem to come back every time they think they've been given a reason..." He looked back at Hinata. "And now I just keep thinking, and thinking. Wondering if they're right, wondering if Sasuke and Sakura will forgive me, and even wondering why I keep wondering... and it never gets me anywhere."

"I-is that why y-you ignored me?" Hinata asked.

"Yeah, when I start thinking, everything else just kinda fades away. Heh, everyone's always called me an idiot, maybe I don't have enough brain to think and pay attention at the same time." Naruto grinned wryly.

"Th-then everyone is w-wrong." Hinata protested.

"Well, I'm glad someone thinks so." Naruto said. "So, that's my story. My turn to ask again."

"O-O.K." Hinata said, waiting for his question.

"So, you told me you're not a people person... but I think it's more than that. You just don't seem confident about... much of anything. I think it's more than just being shy, something had to cause it. What was it?" Naruto asked, his unusual perceptiveness kicking in.

"W-well..." Hinata looked down. She knew exactly what he was talking about, and she did know what had happened. Her uncle had been killed because of her, and now her cousin hated her. She wasn't skilled, so her own father figured she was just a waste of space, a disappointment not worth his brother's sacrifice. She had no reason not to agree with him, after all, her sister who was half her age was a challenge for her during sparring.

Naruto noticed that not only was Hinata not answering him, but she was just staring at the rooftop beneath them, trembling.

Hinata shut her eyes tightly, suddenly all she could think about about was her pile of failures and disappointments. Why didn't she have confidence? Because she had no reason to have any. Suddenly though, she was mercifully snapped out of her thoughts. She opened her eyes, and her face regained its redder than rosy complexion when she saw that Naruto was crouching in front of her, hand on her shoulder.

"Never mind Hinata, I didn't mean to make you upset. Maybe you'll feel like talking about it some other time." Naruto smiled reassuringly. In hindsight, he should have know a question like that might cause problems...

"Th-thank you." Hinata took a deep breath to calm herself.

"How about we talk about something else, anything you want. Maybe something not so depressing.' Naruto laughed slightly and moved back to sitting across from her.

"Th-that would be nice." Hinata nodded, face slowly returning to a somewhat natural color.

And so they talked about things like their favorite food, though Hinata already knew Naruto's. Then again, so did just about everyone in the village who knew him. They talked about just about anything they could think of worth talking about. Naruto found he could actually focus on talking to Hinata and not be dragged back into the darkness that was clouding his mind. He found he could actually be happy while talking to her.

**. . .**

That night he found himself back in the Kyuubi's sewer. He looked up, and found that the path of lights were already lit, and followed them to the Kyuubi's jail cell.

"**Hmph, you go from one weak human girl to another. I'm disappointed, don't you want to be strong?"** The demon asked, it's red eyes glowing in the darkness from behind the bars that trapped it.

"What? Hinata?" Naruto asked. "What's wrong with Hinata?"

"**She's weak! Arguably even weaker than the other bi-... girl..." **The Kyuubi forced itself not to insult Sakura, wanting to keep Naruto from withdrawing from the conversation out of anger.

"At least she's nice to me." Naruto crossed his arms. "I can actually think straight around her."

"**Fair enough... fine, have your frivolous little conversations, just remember that someone like her can only drag you down in the end." **The Kyuubi grumbled.

"Or maybe I'll just be strong enough for both of us. You said you'd make me stronger, when are you going to get to it!" Naruto snapped.

"**Have patience, kit. Becoming truly strong is not simple, and you seem hell bent on doing it the hardest way possible. You cling to those two you call teammates, you make friends with a girl who has no backbone, and you're so messed up in the head I haven't been able to contact you even in your dreams!" **The Kyuubi ranted, growling loudly in frustration.

"S-sorry." Naruto sighed.

"**Hmph, at least I reached you this time... maybe that girl isn't so bad if she snapped you out of it. But that's besides the point. I've been thinking about these voices. I haven't come up with much, but they seem to be affecting you even when they aren't talking. They're definitely tied to your increasing abilities. The bitch voice pops up and you get better at fighting even when she's being quiet. That older bastard appears and suddenly you seem to know what everyone's thinking. Then that new one... I'm not sure about him. I think he's trying to do the same thing I am, make you stronger, they all are, but he's trying to do it through your emotions."**

"Well he's doing a really bad job..." Naruto grumbled, rolling his eyes.

"**That's because you're stubborn!" **The Kyuubi roared. **"I don't like these voices messing with you, but that one has a point."**

"Yeah, you said that last time." Naruto shook his head. "And what do you mean I know what everyone's thinking, if I did, I'd know what Hinata was so upset about!"

"**Hmph, bad choice of words then. But think, you did knew something was bothering her, so much that she can barely talk to people, and when she does she stutters like a retard. You knew the Hokage was a perv and was hiding those magazines. You knew exactly how to piss of Sasuke and Sakura. See where I'm going with this?"** The Kyuubi explained. **"Maybe you're not a mind reader, but you seem to know things you shouldn't."**

"R-right..." Naruto sighed. "So what should I do? I can tell them to shut up, but they just come back later, I can't block them out."

"**I honestly don't know kit. They seem to pop up more when you're in trouble though, so the faster you get stronger the better. First we need t-"** The Kyuubi was cut off when suddenly Naruto felt himself get a massive headache. The sewer and the Kyuubi faded away, and he woke up.

"What the hell?" He sat up inn bed, clutching his head. He felt wide awake, unlike how he usually felt upon waking up.

"_Why would you listen to the beast_!" It was the voice of the man that had appeared like a ghost before.

"_You do not need it_!" This time it was the female voice that had nearly caused him to kill Sasuke.

"_It will only lie to you. It tried to destroy your village. It is a being of hatred, why would it want to help_?" With the third, softer male voice, all three were accounted for. Never before had all three spoken at once.

"J-just leave me alone!" Naruto shouted out loud. He was alone, no need to be quiet.

"_Answer my question."_ The older male voice ordered.

"He's never done anything to mess with me. He's actually reasonable!" Naruto growled.

"_And we are trying to harm you? You know that isn't true. You're confused."_ The voice replied.

"_You are upset with us and you're scared because of what happened with your so-called friend."_ The softer voice added.

"_I only intended to allow you to show your strength. I merely showed you how."_ The female explained itself.

"So what, this is all a big misunderstanding and I should just trust you? I should ignore the fact that most people don't have a bunch of ghost voices talking to them? I should just consider myself lucky? I can understand the Kyuubi, but you make no sense!" Naruto clutched his head with both hands now, trying to shut the voices out.

"_When have we ever truly led you astray? All of what we have done has been in your best interest." _The older one said.

"Yeah, and what about my friends?" Naruto glared, though he had nothing to glare at.

"_They are not your friends..."_ The softer voice actually sounded annoyed. In fact, it was the only voice that seemed to show any real emotion.

"_You have only been getting stronger. You have more reasons to trust us than to not trust us."_ The older one spoke again.

"Then tell me who you are!" Naruto ordered.

"_We are your strength." _All three answered at once.

"That doesn't tell me anything!" Naruto yelled, getting angry. They were so cryptic it made his head hurt even more than it already did.

"_You must learn to trust. Until then, you will continue to lack the strength you desire."_ The older voice spoke. After that, they all went silent. Naruto lay back in bed, thinking about what they'd said, and hoping that when he fell asleep he'd be back with the Kyuubi, but when sleep came, it was only a dark, dreamless slumber.

**. . .**

A few things happened as time continued to roll on past. Naruto seemed to grow farther apart from his team, including Kakashi who seemed wary of him for some reason. Though, part of him couldn't blame the man. He'd probably be wary of himself too. But still, while he tried not to let it show, it hurt.

On the other hand, he was talking to Hinata quite often now, and he was proud to say the girl seemed to be opening up a bit, even if it was just around him. He'd even invited her to train with him, and after some coaxing, she'd agreed. They'd only trained together once so far, but he thought he'd managed to help her out quite a bit. She was far more receptive to working with him than Sakura had been. Though, that was probably because Sakura didn't like him...

Lastly, Kakashi had made an announcement. It just under two weeks, the Chuunin Exams would be upon them, and they were going to be in it. Naruto felt ready, and he was sure Sasuke was too. He wasn't sure about Sakura though, she was the weakest of their group. Sure he'd trained with her a few times, and had done his best to help her improve, but he hadn't accomplished anything truly significant. And sure, Kakashi had stepped up their training a little, but it wasn't a very strong effort on Kakashi's part.

There was something that Naruto almost found funny though. Sakura pretty much hated him, but yet sometimes when Sakura thought Naruto wasn't looking, he'd notice her practicing things he had taught her. Part of him was actually happy to have made a difference, and another part of him mourned what could have been if it wasn't for his outburst.

But was it really his fault? He had started to question that. At first he had just shoved the voices away, but now... now he wondered. He had yelled at them for a reason right? Wasn't he the only one who had a right to hate? Why was he trying to apologize, it should be the other way around, shouldn't it? Hell, Sakura should be kissing his feet, he'd gone out of his way to help her and be nice to her!

Yet there was that part of him that wouldn't fully commit to that line of thought. Like it or not, he was stuck with those two for the foreseeable future, and he still had memories of those few good times he'd had with them. Fighting along side Sasuke against Haku, each trusting the other with their lives, and before that when they'd worked together to save Kakashi. Sure they didn't get along well, but they made a good team when it came down to it.

And Sakura... well... that was a tough one. He remembered way back, to that one time she'd almost been nice to him. Unfortunately, irony dictated that the moment would be ruined by the fact that he was too lazy to clean out his damn refrigerator, and his stomach had chosen that exact moment to rebel. Considering his track record, he supposed at the time Sakura had had no reason to think of him as much more than a worthless troublemaker.

He and Sakura had always had one thing though, one thing that the two of them had shared day after day after day. It was just one funny little thing, something that had never stood out until now. Something that most wouldn't even take note of. Every day their team would meet, Kakashi would be late. And every day their team would meet, he and Sakura would complain about it together. It was the one thing the two of them had always agreed on without fail. Sure Sakura had often seemed annoyed by his complaining, but she always had complained right along with him and the bulk of her annoyance was probably aimed at Kakashi, not him.

Now though, the three of them would just stand there quietly, waiting for Kakashi, none of them even attempting to make eye contact. Then Kakashi would arrive, tell them what they had scheduled for the day and they'd get to it. Naruto's presence seemed to make them all uneasy, and talking was scarce. Sakura rarely even bothered to fawn over Sasuke.

He had hoped that over time they might forgive and forget, but it wasn't looking very likely right now. The past just wouldn't let him go. It wouldn't let him forget that there had been a time that the three had shared a strange bond of friendship. It wouldn't let any of them forget what Naruto had said. He was stuck between his own not wanting to let go, and his former friends' anger.

**. . .**

Naruto and Hinata had decided on two specific days that if possible, they would always try to talk. However, it turned out that they usually ended up talking on more than just those two days. Often they would just bump into each other and couldn't help but get lost in conversation. This was one of those times.

"So, did your sensei tell you about the Chuunin Exams?" Naruto asked Hinata. They were currently walking aimlessly together through the village. They rarely used the rooftops anymore, now perfectly comfortable just talking out in the open.

"Yeah, Kurenai-sensei told us that she thought we could handle it." Hinata replied. She still talked softly, but had grown comfortable enough to not stutter too much anymore. Occasionally she would if their current topic made her nervous, or if someone she knew spotted them talking. She also usually still stuttered when talking to people other than Naruto, a stark contradiction to how it used to be.

She supposed it was because Naruto seemed genuinely care. Others just didn't seem quite as concerned about her and were just so used to her shy behavior they didn't bother touching on the subject, while Naruto always joked around with her to try and help her loosen up. He never outright said anything about her confidence, or lack-thereof, but she could tell he did some of what he did to help her.

"What do you think?" Naruto asked. He had a feeling, no, he knew Hinata wasn't feeling quite up to it.

"I-I'm not so sure. I mean, K-Kiba-kun and Shino-kun are strong, b-but... me..." Hinata looked down, clearly worried. She was probably more worried about letting her team down than she was for her own safety. Naruto was sure there was more to everything, but whenever he even got close to the subject Hinata would just shut down.

"Well then, you know what we should do then?" Naruto asked, grinning widely.

"Wh-what?" Hinata looked at him, curious.

"We should train together again, come on!" He grabbed Hinata's hand, which of course made her blush, and led her to one of the training grounds that weren't being used.

"Umm, sh-shouldn't you be worrying about yourself and your team?" Hinata asked, looking at the ground blushing. She was more than flattered that Narruto wanted to help her, but she didn't want him to neglect himself.

"Nah, I'm pretty much invincible!" Naruto grinned, but then sighed. "Besides, I don't think they want anything to do with me?"

"That's not true! You're a good person Naruto, they just need to realize that!" Hinata assured him. Forcing herself to regain composure, if only to make what she said more convincing to Naruto.

"Heh, you keep reminding me of that." Narruto couldn't help but chuckle. That's pretty much what she always said when Naruto started whining about his teammates hating him. He figured it must be true if Hinata was so certain, but he cold never seem to convince himself.

"That's because I'm right." Hinata smiled. For some reason that made Naruto feel about ten times better and he decided to forget about all the unhappy thoughts for the time being.

"If you say so, but come on, we're here to train, right?" Naruto reminded Hinata, playfully slapping her on the back, startling the girl a bit.

"R-right." Hinata gave in. She supposed she needed all the help she could get.

"Now, I have no idea how the hell your fighting style works, so I'm going to teach you a few of the things I know. After all, a little unpredictability never hurts..." And so the training began. Naruto did his best to teach Hinata as many tricks as he could – tricks no one would ever expect form a Hyuuga.

**. . .**

The current day concluded what was now the fourth training session Naruto had given Hinata. Hinata was picking up something new every time, and Naruto had high hopes for her. However, what she had said before had him thinking. As much as he cared about Hinata and her making it through the exams, he really should be worrying about his own team. Should he really penalize his team because he was afraid of them rejecting him? Well, if they did he supposed it was their fault, but he figured he shouldn't give up until that actually happened.

This was why he was currently hiding around a corner that had Sakura on the other side. He figured out of his two teammates, Sakura was the one most likely to accept his help. Besides, Sasuke didn't really need that much help. Well, here went... something.

He walked around the corner and walked over to Sakura who was relaxing on a bench outside of a small restaurant she had just finished eating.

"So, have a nice lunch?" Naruto asked nervously.

"Yeah, it was great... until you showed up." Sakura glared at him.

"I don't suppose there's any chance we can put that whole hate thing behind us and move on is there? I really don't want you to hate me Sakura." Naruto begged. To his mild surprise, Sakura seemed to think this over for a few seconds. Like, _actually_ considering his words, not just thinking of the best way to tell him to get lost.

"What do you want Naruto, I'm trying to actually have a good day here." She grumbled. Well, at least she hadn't told him to go away... or say that she hated his guts... or just outright tell him to fuck off. A small victory. Maybe.

"Well, Kakashi told us about the exams. I was hoping we could start training together again, at least until the exams start anyway." Naruto explained himself.

"You seriously think I want to spend _extra_ time near you?" Sakura asked him incredulously.

"No, but I do think you want to do better than Ino." Naruto replied cleverly. "Come on, you know you were improving when we trained together, I still see you practicing the stuff I showed you." He had to hide a triumphant smirk when he saw Sakura shrink back embarassedly.

"Y-yeah, well... still, I don't want to do stuff... near you..." Sakura stuttered, thrown off by his answer.

"Weak Sakura, weak." Naruto shook his head amusedly at her comeback. "Come on, we're teammates, it's training, not a date. You're a ninja, you're obligated to work hard to get better."

"Grr, when the hell did _you_ get so smart?" Sakura growled at him.

"About the same time you started hating me for it." Naruto laughed, grinning like an idiot at this point. Messing with Sakura was actually kind of fun. He nearly lost it when he saw Sakura almost laugh at his reply.

"Sh-shut up jerk!" Sakura shouted at him, crossing her arms.

"So, see you at the training grounds in an hour when you're done digesting?" Naruto asked.

"Hey, don't just decide things for me!" Sakura scowled at him.

"You'll be there?" Naruto repeated, eyebrow raised expectantly. Sakura just stared at him with a look full of loathing for a moment, but then hung her head in defeat and sighed.

"Ugh, fine..." She grumbled.

"A wise decision!" Naruto grinned, and walked off.

"Jackass." Sakura muttered when she thought he was out of hearing range.

"I heard that!" Naruto called back.

"So what!" Sakura shouted back.

Sure, Sakura clearly wasn't happy about the whole situation, but if she actually showed up in an hour, well, that really would be a victory on Naruto's part.

**. . .**

An hour passed, and there was no sign of Sakura, but Naruto wasn't too worried, no rules said she had to show up perfectly on time. Perhaps she had lost track of time or something. Though, when another fifteen minutes rolled past, Naruto began to get suspicious. Another ten minutes later, he began to consider giving up.

He was glad he didn't, because, while quite late, Sakura did show up.

"You're late." Naruto said loudly.

"Yeah yeah, sorry." Sakura waved it off, clearly not meaning it.

"Well, as long as you're here I guess." Naruto shrugged, deciding not to press the matter. After all this work, he didn't want to drive her off.

"So what exactly are we going to do?" Sakura asked, putting her hands on her hips impatiently.

"Well, we have barely over a week, so we're going to focus on just a few specific things that I think will help you the most." Naruto explained.

"Like?" Sakura raised an eyebrow, interested since Naruto seemed to have actually put some thought into this. _"Alright, seriously, when _did_ Naruto grow a brain?"_ She wondered.

"I think the best strategy for you that we can work on in such a short period of time is focusing on counter attacks, I don't think you're ready for starting an attack, at least not on your own. I'm gonna warn you that it's a bit risky, but I have faith in you, and if I'm wrong, well, you probably won't be around to beat me up over it, right?" Naruto explained jokingly.

"Oh yeah? Screw. You." Sakura glared. Alright, maybe it was too soon for joking.

"Heh, sorry. But I'm serious, you remember what I taught you I'm sure, so let's start there." Naruto went on, gaining a more serious tone and expression.

That was how Naruto spent the last eight and a half days before the Chuunin Exams. Splitting his time between helping Hinata and Sakura train. In stark comparison, he enjoyed training Hinata, and while they got a lot done, the two also had fun. With Sakura however, it was all business. The girl just didn't seem to appreciate any humor he tried to bring into it. At the very least, Sakura _was_ trying. He figured she was probably trying to prove some point that only she cared about and didn't really need proving.

When it was over, Naruto noticed a difference in both girls. Hinata was more confident, and a closer friend than ever. Sakura, while still keeping her distance emotionally, wasn't quite as awkward to be around, and seemed to take her role as a ninja a bit more seriously. That and her abilities weren't quite as much of a joke anymore.

**. . .**

"Alright guys, the exam is tomorrow, you still feel up to it? Any cold feet?" Kakashi asked, looking the three of them over, though he only spared Naruto a glance.

"Hn, of course I'm up to it." Sasuke scoffed.

"Yeah, I'm ready too." Sakura nodded with an unusual confidence in her eyes.

"Bring it on!" Naruto grinned.

"Hmm, well, that's good to hear. The first part of the exams will be at the academy, be there tomorrow morning." Kakashi said, gave a nod of farewell, and left.

**. . .**

Not far from Konoha, a meeting was going on in secret between two rather shady individuals.

"What is it, I assume you have a good reason for coming to me?" A dark figure asked.

"Of course. There's been an unusual development that I thought you'd find very interesting." A younger voice replied.

"And what would that be?"

"The Kyuubi vessel, the one called Naruto, he seems to have gained some unusual traits. Apparently he even defeated the Uchiha, nearly killed him in fact."

"Really? That _is_ interesting. Tell me everything you've learned..."

* * *

**Oh no! Evil dark meetings of DOOM! **

**Some of you are probably taking a fit over the whole Naruto still being nice to Sakura despite everything she's done to torment him. I realize exactly what I've written, and I know what I'm doing, alright? So take a deep breath, and wait for the next chapter.**

**Lastly, don't think I left out the rest of you lovely reviewers, here's what I have to say to you!**

**Deltabeta26: Then I'll bet you liked this chapter eh? I like to think the Kyuubi is intelligent and experienced due to how old it is. To just label it as a mindless destructive monster is lame. (by the way, what happened to alpha? Haha. Get it? I'm making fun of your name! Oh I kill me.)**

**Vaanarash: You think the plot is thickening now? Wait until later! I answered your 'when is this taking place?' question via PM, but I think this chapter also answered it pretty well, eh?**

**Dusk Ado: Damn straight it's excellent! And I'm glad you mentioned the verbal beat down thing, that was something I really focused on because, in my opinion, it was one of the more important events in that chapter. I even asked a friend to help me with it... he didn't do a very good job, but still, the point is I put a lot of effort into it.**

**Thank all of you for your reviews! I hope you review again for this chapter. And thank you in advance to those who haven't reviewed yet but decide to!**


	4. Take All The Help You Can Get

**Note: You can always check my profile to check the status of any fic I have going. I do my best to keep it updated and will slap a date on most updates so you know what's going on. Just scroll down to the 'My Fics' section of my profile and check the underlined status area**

**Delta was the third to leave a review, but the first two didn't say anything warranting a top of the chapter response... not that I didn't appreciate them. I love all reviews!**

**Deltabeta: Huh, that's actually a fairly accurate analysis of what I did now that I think about it. And trust me, the "punchline" is gonna be awesome... Well I guess this chapter better deliver now that I've said that... oi.**

* * *

**Take All The Help You Can Get**

"This is it. Ready guys?" Naruto asked his team as they stood before the academy where their Chuunin Exams would begin.

"Kakashi asked us that yesterday moron." Sasuke sighed and walked past him to enter the building.

"Alright alright, sheesh," Naruto muttered. ". . . teme. . ." he added quietly. Insignificantly short argument aside, the three genin of Team 7 entered and began walking up the stairs. They'd been told that they were looking for room 301. They soon found it surrounded by a few other students who for some reason were not being allowed to enter. Even stranger was... Naruto walked right past it without so much as a glance.

Sakura and Sasuke stopped, looking a bit confused. Then it hit them, they were still on the second floor, why would room _3_01 be on the second floor?

"Sasuke-kun... should we tell them?" Sakura asked.

"Hn, if they're too stupid to figure it out on their own, they shouldn't be Chuunin," Sasuke scoffed, and began to walk after Naruto. Sakura glanced at the group one last time, just in time to see a girl with two buns in her hair get back handed off her feet and then figured Sasuke was probably right. She felt a bit bad for the group being fooled by what must be a genjutsu, but it was their own fault for not noticing such a simple trick.

Sasuke and Sakura found Naruto waiting at the top of the third floor stairs.

"Hey, what took you so long? Don't tell me they actually fooled you even for a second?" Naruto grinned mischievously. It was almost refreshing to see him so full of energy again.

"The most surprising thing here is that you _weren't_ fooled," Sakura scowled. She still wasn't used to Naruto being smart.

"Well, to be honest the only reason I even noticed the room was because of the crowd. I wasn't looking for our room yet because I knew we were still on the second floor at the time. Seriously, and people call me stupid and they had like ten people trying to get into the wrong room!" Naruto laughed loudly.

"In other words... you weren't really paying attention..." Sakura grumbled. For a second there, she had almost been impressed.

Naruto sighed, "There were two people guarding the door using a genjutsu to disguise themselves as Genin, though they were probably Chuunin or higher, but I doubt Jounin would bother with that. There were four teams, adding up to twelve people trying to get past them. The imposter on the right was controlling the genjutsu disguising room 234 as 301," he explained at length. Sasuke's right eye twitched slightly while Sakura just stared at Naruto dumbly. "See? I was paying attention. Can we get going now?" Naruto asked and then turned around to head to their destination.

"Now's he's just getting cocky," Sakura growled as she and Sasuke followed Naruto.

The dysfunctional team arrived at room 301 with plenty of time to spare, and entered. They all stopped short for a second when they saw the rather large group in the room.

"Th-there's a lot of people here," Sakura gulped. She had been working a bit harder lately, but the odds were hugely against her. She doubted she'd be able to rely on her team throughout the entire exam.

"Ha! Just more chances to prove how awesome I am!" Naruto grinned excitedly.

"Exactly." Sasuke couldn't help but agree. Not exactly how he would have worded it though.

They took a few steps into the room and suddenly heard the doors behind them open as more teams arrived.

"Sheesh, I can't believe they pulled a trick like that. This is all your fault Lee, you just had to keep trying to get into the room! It wasn't even the right room! He slapped me in the face!" It was the girl with buns in her hair.

"S-sorry TenTen," a boy in a ridiculous green spandex outfit replied.

"We're lucky Neji noticed or we'd be completely screwed!" the girl, TenTen, continued her rant as the team found a spot in the room to wait.

"I guess we just wait now," Naruto shrugged. The group took a few more steps into the room, but were once again interupted.

"Sasuke-kun! You made it!" A blonde girl draped herself over the Uchiha.

"Ino... get off," Sasuke growled dangerously.

"But I want to show my affectio-" Ino suddenly felt herself dragged off of him by an extremely angry and jealous Sakura.

"Hands off pig," She growled, showing a side that had largely been dormant ever since Naruto had stopped provoking it.

"_Oh here we go again," _Naruto sighed mentally.

"Hey, watch it forehead!" Ino slapped Sakura's hand away and glared at her.

"No, _you_ watch it! Sasuke doesn't even like you, and you're being all pushy like that! How stupid can yo be?" Sakura yelled at her rival for Sasuke's affection.

"H-hey, don't talk to me like that!" Ino was surprised at how harsh Sakura was being. Sure they pretty much hated each other, but Sakura seemed way more aggressive than usual.

"Maybe you should go away if you can't take it." Sakura crossed her arms and continued to glare daggers at Ino.

"Screw you! This isn't over!" Ino glared and stomped off.

"I could have handled that..." Sasuke looked at Sakura warily.

"Oh... umm, sorry. I've been wanting to do something like that for a while now," Sakura laughed nervously, replacing her furious demeanor for a more sheepish one.

"Uh... huh..." Sasuke shook his head. Girls were crazy, he'd never understand them.

Meanwhile, Naruto felt someone tap his shoulder and turned to see who it was.

"Huh? Oh! Hey Hinata, I knew you'd make it!" Naruto grinned. Finally someone he could actually talk to while they waited!

"I-I couldn't l-let your help go to w-waste." Hinata was clearly nervous with the large crowd, and the fact that most of them would be trying to get rid of her.

"Well of course not!" Naruto chuckled. "That was time I could have spent training myself!"

"I-I'm sorry..." Hinata looked away.

"Oh come on! I was kidding, don't you know me better by now." Naruto poked Hinata's shoulder playfully.

"Oh... s-sorry, I-I guess I'm n-nervous." Hinata blushed.

"Eh, don't worry. I'll let you in on a secret." Naruto leaned in closer. "Sasuke is too!" He whispered and then gave an amused grin when Hinata giggled at the joke.

"Hey, stop messing around with the competition Hinata, especially the stupid ones!" someone yelled at them. Naruto looked up and saw that it was Kiba, one of Hinata's teammates. He was almost as loud as Naruto used to be, and twice as cocky.

"I-I... uhhh." Hinata was red with embarrassment now. She waned to stick up for Naruto, but that would be awkward since no one really knew about her being friends with Naruto.

"Oh go blow it out your ass Kiba. You're not exactly a genius either. Maybe Hinata should stop being around _you_." Naruto countered with a smirk.

"Why you little..." Kiba glared and began to stomp over to pummel him, but the last member of their team grabbed his shoulder.

"Don't lose control of your temper so easily, Kiba." the shade wearing boy said in an eerily calm monotone.

"Hmph, whatever, Shino." Kiba grumbled, stuck his hands in his pockets and turned around to walk off, but not before his pet dog Akamaru, who was riding on his head, barked at Naruto and growled a bit.

"Come Hinata, it will likely begin soon." Shino motioned for Hinata to follow him.

"G-good luck Naruto-kun." Hinata said and then quickly headed over to Shino.

**. . .**

A few more minutes passed and finally the examiner appeared along with a number of Chuunin. He was a large imposing man with a bandana on his head, leather gloves, and a trench coat. Naruto half expected him to ask if they wanted to buy a watch.

"Alright listen up, I am Morino Ibiki, and I will be giving yo your first test." He began. "It will be a written test."

"Well, Naruto's screwed," Sakura sighed. Everyone was then assigned seats, and nobody was sitting next to anyone on their team. Though Naruto was pleasantly surprised when he found himself sitting next to Hinata, though he doubted they'd have time to talk to each other.

Ibiki then listed a number of rather frightening rules. A subtraction based scoring system and anyone who failed removed their entire team from the running. Anyone caught cheating five times lost automatically, again along with their whole team.

"_Man, I've been getting better at fighting, but I'm still not good at tests!"_ Naruto groaned. He could live with himself failing he supposed, but he didn't want to screw Sasuke and Sakura over.

"You may now look at your tests and begin!" Ibiki announced. Naruto did so, looked over the questions, and decided he'd be better off just killing himself then and there.

"_Are you willing to trust us yet?" _Naruto suddenly heard the older male voice speak in his mind.

"_Oh come on! This is the worst possible time!"_ Naruto groaned mentally.

"_Is it? What if I told you the answers to most of these questions?"_ The voice inquired.

"_Well... uhh... what do you want in return?"_ Naruto asked.

"_All we want is for you to succeed. There is no catch to this."_ The voice answered.

"_. . . f-fine, but you better be telling the truth!"_ Naruto sighed and looked back at the test, and soon begin to answer questions as the elder voice narrated to him the answers.

Meanwhile, Sakura was figuring out the questions at a decent pace. Being a bookworm back at the academy was finally paying off.

"_Hmph, Naruto's probably taking a fit right about now."_ She would have found it funny except if he failed they were _all_ done. She glanced up at him, and nearly choked in surprise to see him quickly writing down answers. _"Th-there's no way he knows the answers! He's been getting smarter but this is ridiculous! He's definitely cheating... or, or making stuff up! Yeah, that's it, no way he knows this kind of complicated stuff!"_ Well, it was somewhat true; Naruto _was_ getting help. _"Hmph, well, then how is Sasuke-kun doing?" _she wondered, and looked over at him next. She felt sick when she saw he wasn't even holding his pencil and was looking at his test with dismay. Part of her felt like giving up on _life_ at this point.

A bit later she noticed Naruto was leaning back in his chair completely relaxed, done with his test.

"_WHAT THE HELL! DAMMIT! I'm barely half done!"_Sakura nearly snapped her pencil in half. She checked Sasuke again and noticed he was finally writing down answers and at a decent pace too. Except he wasn't even looking at his paper... he was staring at the boy in front of him. _"W-wait... is he... CHEATING!"_ She supposed it was fine as long as he... didn't get... caught...

She felt like smacking herself. She always praised herself for being so smart and she'd missed the point of the test. She'd noticed that the test seemed rigged to make them cheat, but she thought that was just to trick them into failing. She realized now that, being that they were all ninjas, it was rigged that way because they were _supposed_ to cheat. Herself being smart enough to not need to was just luck on her part. In fact it was rather ironic that she hadn't seen the true purpose until now.

Sakura finally finished the test with just over ten minutes left. She felt extremely embarrassed despite being able to answer the questions. Both Naruto and Sasuke had finished before her. She was supposed to be the smart one and yet she felt like the biggest failure in the room.

"Number 53, FAIL!" one of the Chuunin watching the test takers shouted and shortly after a Genin was dragged out, along with his team. It had happened numerous times throughout the test.

"_W-well, at least I'm_ in_ the room."_ Sakura twitched slightly as she watched the doors shut behind the kicking, screaming Genin and his embarrassed team.

"Alright, pencils down," Ibiki spoke up when their time was up. "I'm about to give you the final question, but first, I'm going to give you a warning. If you answer this incorrectly, you will be prohibited from taken this exam ever again!"

"What the hell kind of rule is that!" one of the other Genin shouted.

"MY RULE!" Ibiki roared. "However, you have the option of leaving now and trying again next time. So what's it going to be? Risk it all, or hope for a more forgiving proctor next time? Just keep in mind, if you give up, you take your team with you."

"_Oh crap! I wasn't ready for this!"_ Naruto thought nervously.

"_Do not fret, stay in the room and it will be fine."_ the soft spoken voice advised.

"_What?"_ Naruto asked confusedly.

"_You will see,"_ the voice replied cryptically.

One after the other, teams were eliminated when it turned out one of their members didn't have the stones to go through with it.

"_You're sure of this?" _Naruto asked. He still had a little time left to back out.

"_Positive,"_ the soft voice assured him. A few seconds later, it was too late. He'd have to trust the voices for the second time in the last hour. In the end, only 66 remained of an initial number of more than double that.

"Alright, those of you who remain..." Ibiki gave an amused smirk. "PASS! Congratulations!"

"_See? You can trust us,"_ the voice spoke up instantly. Naruto wondered if perhaps it was bragging.

"_Hmph, we'll see..."_ Naruto replied, still suspicious.

"Wh-what about the last question?" Sakura asked, confused.

"You just answered it. The two choices for question ten were either leave, or stay. Those who chose to stay answered correctly just by doing that. As a ninja, you won't always have the choice to back out and try again later. Only those with the guts to press on are worthy of becoming a Chuunin." Ibiki explained. "And trust me, you will need that kind of courage to survive." He said ominously, and pulled off his bandana, revealing horrific scars and even screw holes in his skull.

"_Ewwww..." _Sakura blanched at the sight.

"_What the hell did he go through?"_ Sasuke wondered, eyes wide.

"_Wow, somebody really kicked his ass,"_ Naruto twitched, hoping he never had to deal with something like that.

Before Ibiki could say anything else, one of the windows shattered and a banner was suddenly pinned to the ceiling with kunai. Standing before it was a woman wearing a fishnet shirt and a miniskirt. Beyond that she wore a trench coat that was not fastened shut, which let everyone see that she was rather well endowed when it came to her... physical dimensions.

"Don't celebrate just yet! I'm Mitarashi Anko and I'll be giving you your next test which will be much harder!" The woman shouted.

"Umm, was that really necessary?" Ibiki peeked around the banner to look at her.

". . . shut up. . ." She grumbled at him. "Wait, you let this many pass? I figured you'd have gotten rid of more. Oh well, I'll at least cut them in half." She smirked maliciously. "Now come on maggots, follow me to the next test!"

**. . .**

"So, by now they must have finished the first test. How do you think your teams did?" a bulky man with a beard and a cigarette asked.

"I'm sure mine did just fine. The first test is about information gathering right? All of my students have skills that can help them with that," a woman with red eyes and long dark hair replied. The two shared a room with Kakashi, and they were all waiting at the area where any teams that survived the second test would end up. The two were Sarutobi Asuma and Yuhi Kurenai respectively.

"Hmm, what about your team Kakashi?" Asuma asked.

"Well, Sakura's smart so I'm sure she probably didn't even need to 'cheat,' and Sasuke's talented. I'm not sure about Naruto though..." Kakashi sighed. Then again, with what had been going on with Naruto, he very well could have pulled it off. "So, I guess that leaves you then Asuma."

"Let's just say I think it'll only take one of them to get the entire team through." Asuma chuckled. It was true, during the test, Ino had used her Shintenshin no Jutsu to body swap into someone who had finished the test, memorize the answers, and then jump into her teammates Shikamaru and Chouji to write down the answers for them.

"The next test is the Forest of Death. Students actually die during this one, much more challenging than cheating and not getting caught," Kurenai said as she looked out the window and into the forest surrounding the building they were in.

"I'm sure my team will make it. They argue a lot, but their teamwork is just as good as their parents'... well... sometimes," Asuma replied. As the two went on, chatting about how they figured their teams' skills would help them pull through, Kakashi just wondered what would happen to his own team. None of them really had skills that were made for getting through a survival challenge. They would have to rely on teamwork, something that they had sorely been lacking lately. He also worried about Naruto. Not out of concern for the boy though, but for Sasuke and Sakura. What if the stress of the forest set him off again and he hurt someone?

Naruto hadn't hurt anyone since he pummeled Sasuke, but still, Kakashi knew whatever was going on with him wasn't over. He didn't trust Naruto.

**. . .**

Meanwhile, the surviving Genin teams had been informed about the rules of their next test. Each team had a scroll, either a brown earth scroll or a white heaven scroll. They needed to hold on to theirs, and get whichever one they lacked. Beyond that, they had to get to the center of the forest without any casualties. These rules ensured no more than 11 of the 22 remaining teams would pass.

"Alright, finish filling out your consent forms and trade them for a scroll, then you'll each be sent to a gate and the test will begin." Anko ordered. "Oh, and one last piece of advice... don't die." If only it were that easy.

After getting their scroll, a heaven scroll, Team 7 stood before their gate.

"Alright, I'll hold onto our scroll-" Naruto was interrupted by Sasuke before he could finish his sentence.

"No way, _I'll_ hold onto it. I'm the least likely to lose it!"Sasuke scowled.

"Wrong." Naruto folded his arms defiantly.

"What makes you say that?" Sasuke asked, annoyed by what he perceived to be stubbornness.

"Room 301," Naruto smirked, reminding them of his lengthy explanation on why the ruse hadn't fooled him.

". . ." Sasuke glared at Naruto, but realized he had no argument and gave up.

"Anyway, as I was saying, I'll hold onto it and then we'll head to the center. We should probably wait to find a scroll. We'll conserve our energy and pick off a more tired team closer to the end." Naruto explained what he saw to be the best plan. "It's not that complicated I know, but that'll make it easier to pull off."

"Right, and we'll just hope no one attacks us," Saskue scoffed. "It's not that easy, moron."

"We're ninja, we'll hide from them, hell, maybe we can even pull off an ambush or something," Naruto countered.

"Right, _you_ are going to hide." Sasuke glanced down at Naruto's jacket.

"Tigers are orange and they can hide," Naruto glared.

"Tigers have stripes," Sasuke reminded Naruto.

"You're just gonna argue with any plan I come up with just to be a prick, aren't you?" Naruto sighed. "Alright then, what do _you _think we should do?"

". . . err, well, obviously we should. . . uhh. . ." Sasuke was clearly struggling, having been focusing on arguing with Naruto he hadn't put any thought into what they should so.

"So, we'll go with my plan then?" Naruto laughed, amused at the anger and embarrassment that was becoming clear on Sasuke's face.

"Screw you," Sasuke grumbled. Fortunately the argument was resolved as a Chuunin showed up shortly after to unlock their gate and let them into the Forest. It had begun.

Barely an hour into the forest and already screams could be heard in the distance.

"_Be wary..."_ Naruto heard in his head.

"_Yeah, I know,"_ he replied. It was pretty obvious that he should be careful.

"_Be wary _now,_"_ the elder male voice repeated more forcefully. That's when Naruto noticed.

"Hey guys hold up, I gotta go uhh... use a bush," Naruto said and quickly ran into the bushes.

"Ugh, already?" Sakrua complained.

Moments later, they heard a loud rustling come from where Naruto was supposed to be relieving himself and a figured suddenly shot out of said bushes and crashed into the ground.

"What the?" Sasuke was instantly on guard and pulled out kunai. He saw that it was a genin from another country wearing a mask and a yellow jumpsuit. _"Hn, and I thought Naruto's outfit stood out..."_

"Dammit!" The genin jumped up, pulling out an unusual double bladed kunai of his own.

"Well what are you waiting for, get him already!" Naruto shouted as he ran out of the bushes. "Or do I have to do everything myself?"

"Just sit back and watch." Sasuke smirked. "Katon: Housenka no Jutsu!" Sasuke called out and then launched numerous small fireballs at the foreign genin whose eyes widened in surprise as he quickly dodged out of the way. He then foolishly kept his attention on Sasuke, and thus never saw Sakura until her foot slammed into his temple from the side.

"Sh-shit... this was stupid!" The genin grumbled as he stood up and attempted to escape, though he was too off balance from the blow to the head to do more than stumble away slowly.

"You got that right." Naruto smirked maliciously as he moved to block his path, leaving him surrounded by Team 7.

"H-hey, I don't have the scroll! Come on, we can work something out." The genin, whose headband told he was from Ame, said nervously as he held his hands up in surrender.

"Yeah, well, if we take you out, your team is disqualified. Less competition." Sasuke reminded their prisoner. "Now, we'll let you off with just some broken kneecaps if you tell us where the rest of your team is. Otherwise we'll be painting the ground with your blood." Sasuke raised his kunai threateningly.

"O-OK OK!" The captive's eyes widened fearfully, and he quickly gave them directions. "See, I helped, we're good now right?" He chuckled nervously.

"Oh, _we're_ good." Sasuke glared. "You're not." He then swiped his kunai across the genin's neck, leaving him writhing on the ground, gurgling pitifully as he died.

"KYAA! SASUKE-KUN! WHY?" Sakura shrieked in shock.

"Dammit, that was too much!" Naruto glared furiously.

"Hmph, the coward betrayed his team too willingly. He deserved worse," Sasuke looked coldly at the corpse, eyes full of contempt. "Come on, let's go get his team's scroll." The Ame genin had also disclosed their team's scroll type along with the directions. It was the one they needed.

"Alright fine, but next time don't do something so drastic without warning..." Naruto sighed. To be honest, he agreed with Sasuke's motives, though he still didn't like the idea of executing a prisoner.

"Whatever, let's just get going. We don't know how long we have until his team moves," Sasuke muttered and began walking in the direction specified by the dead traitor. Naruto grumbled a few things incoherently and followed. Sakura took one last horrified glance at the body and gulped. She hadn't expected to have to deal with such things just yet, but she figured she'd have to get used to it eventually. She decided staring at a dead body wasn't going to do her much good and then quickly jogged to catch up with her teammates.

The three didn't get far when suddenly Naruto felt that something was horribly wrong. Somebody was watching them.

"Sasuke..." Naruto whispered to to Uchiha.

"Yeah..." Sasuke nodded, this wasn't something only Naruto could feel this time.

"What is it?" Sakura asked. But that didn't mean everyone would notice...

Unfortunately, not even Naruto had gained the ability to see the future and suddenly a massive gust of wind hit them, completely lifting them off their feet and sweeping them away.

**. . .**

"Ugh, what the hell was tha-" Naruto started to groan, but,

"_MOVE!"_ the female voice screamed inside his head, and Naruto looked up just in time to see a massive snake lunge at him.

"_T-too fast!" _Naruto watched in horror as the snake moved to scoop him into its mouth. It was at that moment, though, that time seemed to slow down. A familiar presence entered his mind and he felt power begin to flow through him.

The snake then snapped its jaws shut, but they stopped half way. It was as if someone had jammed a stick into its mouth to stop it. A bright orange, and very angry stick.

"Heh, nice to have you back, Kyuubi." Naruto grinned, though he was straining against the giant snake's jaw muscles. He had one foot on its lower jaw, and both hands holding back its upper jaw. His strength was fueled by the reddish aura around his body. It was barely enough. "Better finish this bastard before he realizes he's actually a bit stronger than I am," Naruto muttered, his voice strained. He moved one hand away from the top jaw for a moment, and the snake was instantly able to close its mouth a bit more, though still Naruto was able to hold on.

Naruto whipped out a kunai, and jammed it into the roof of the snakes mouth. The snake writhed, actually lifting Naruto's free foot off the ground. He quickly placed it next to his other foot to help keep the snakes mouth open, though now the snake was tossing its head around in the air, and Naruto was getting a bit sick to his stomach.

"D-dammit, sit still you overfed bastard!" Naruto shouted while he dug in his weapon pouch for something else. When he finally found it he quickly attached it to the kunai and then jumped away, allowing the snake to close its mouth, though it was still shaking its head in an attempt to dislodge the kunai.

Naruto hid behind a tree and began counting backwards, "Three, two, on-" Before he could finish, he heard an explosion and a moment later a charred piece of snake landed next to him. "And dinner's ready. I should carry more explosive notes with me, they really come in handy," Naruto smirked. However, he wasn't going to have time to see if snake tasted any good. He had been blown away by a jutsu and the user was probably going after his team.

**. . .**

Meanwhile, Sasuke was extricating himself from a thorn bush while Sakura, who had landed on a slightly more comfortable rock, was rubbing her now rather sore back.

"Owww, are you OK Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked as she stood up.

"When this bush decides to stop mimicking Ino, I will be." Sasuke grumbled angrily, though his joke earned a giggle from Sakura.

"Want help?" the girl asked.

"No, I got it." Sasuke manged to get the last thorn out of his shirt and get away from the clingy plant. "Did you see where Naruto landed?" he asked. Sakura gave a quick glance around, and then shook her head. "Damn," he sighed.

"I'm over here!" a familiar voice shouted, and then the teammate in question ran over. "You guys OK?"

"We're fine," Sakura answered.

"That's good. I got stuck on a tree while you guys kept going." Naruto grinned. "So, what now Sasuke, keep going after that Ame team?" he asked.

"Errr, yeah..." Sasuke answered a bit uneasily. Why was Naruto asking _him_ what to do? Even Sakura picked up on it this time. If anything, Naruto would at least still be a bit miffed over Sasuke's execution of their prisoner. He certainly wouldn't be asking for instructions.

"Which way were we supposed to be heading again?" Sakura asked. She figured if Naruto knew, then they could trust him. Sasuke realized what she was trying to do and didn't answer.

"Pay attention, we were heading that way." Naruto was able to recite the directions perfectly. However, his demeanor was totally off. The way he spoke, the way he was acting. "So let's get going!"

"Right, follow me." Sasuke nodded. They then headed off, though every now and then Sasuke glanced back at Naruto warily. At one point he glanced back at Sakura, his expression telling her he still didn't feel right about the situation.

"You actually gonna say anything, or do you just like looking at us," Naruto scowled.

"I'm just being careful. This forest is dangerous," Sasuke scoffed at the remark.

"Be nicer to Sasuke-kun, if it wasn't for him noticing that trick with the fake room number, we wouldn't have gotten this far," Sakura yelled at Naruto.

"Yeah yeah, fine," Naruto sighed. Less than a moment later Sasuke turned around and launched a kick straight at his head, sending him crashing to the ground. Sakura also pulled out a kunai and held it up defensively.

"Wrong answer. Naruto's the one who noticed that trick, and you're definitely not him." Sasuke glared at the imposter. The faker then rose to his feet, a sadistic smile on his face.

"Well, I guess I can't know everything. Though I have to wonder how you knew to check," he chuckled.

"You weren't acting like Naruto. Naruto wouldn't just let Sasuke-kun lead like that," Sakura explained. _**"Even though Sasuke-kun could do it just fine..."**_

"Hmph, well it looks like I analyzed things incorrectly. How interesting that you're not leading your team, Uchiha Sasuke." The fake Naruto smirked curiously and then, in a puff of smoke, changed into a taller, pale-skinned form wearing a yellow outfit with black pants along with a kasa on his head.

Sakura and Sasuke were surprised, as the person was older than they'd expected. They'd expected just another genin their age that they'd be able to take out without too much difficulty. Of course age didn't always mean much, but he was certainly bigger than them.

"Very well then, we'll get straight to business," he chuckled darkly. "It will be funner than I thought. So then, you'll want to take my earth scroll correct? Being that you have the heaven scroll." He produced said earth scroll. Then, in an unexpected and sickening twist, the man wrapped his unnaturally long tongue around the scroll, and swallowed it whole. "So, shall we begin the battle for each other's scrolls?"

Before Sasuke or Sakura could respond, two kunai suddenly flew at them, one stabbing deep into each of their foreheads. They watched as their bodies were sliced up and could do nothing about it. It was like they were just observing, but at the same time, it was if it was actually happening to them. But the fear, the fear was definitely there - and it was overpowering. When they had a brief reprieve from the horror, Sasuke threw up. Sakura however just sat their, a blank look on her now tear streamed face.

How odd that just a moment ago they'd both felt so superior for seeing through the man's guise and now they were being destroyed and he hadn't even had to lay one hand on them. It hadn't even been a ninja technique, this man just exuded death and horror from every pore in his body, so powerful was it that it had caused those vivid images to appear in their minds.

However now the man _was_ going to attack them for real and neither of them could move to avoid it. They could only watch as he drew real, quite deadly kunai from his weapon pouch. But no, Sasuke could move, if only a little.

"_N-no, I can't die here! Not now!"_ He thought frantically. In desperation, he grabbed a kunai and stabbed his own leg, as if punishing it for not allowing him to run. The pain brought his body back to life and he quickly grabbed Sakura and jumped away from the danger at the last second.

"Kukuku,what an interesting boy..."Orochimaru chuckled in amusement. This boy just might be worthy.

**. . .**

"_You know your teammates are likely under assault at this very moment." _The elder voice spoke as Naruto did his best to make his way to where he hoped Sasuke and Sakura were.

"_Yes..."_ Nauro replied. He didn't feel he needed to be reminded.

"_Then you must plan ahead,"_ it continued.

"_That's not really my style. I don't even know what I'll be up against anyway. Just leave me alone, I don't need you!"_ Naruto had been fine before they'd shown up and he had the Kyuubi now as well.

"_And you you listen to _her_ so readily..."_ the voice pointed out, referring to the female voice that aided him in battle.

"_Well it would be stupid to ignore her and get stabbed in the face!"_ Naruto argued. Wait, was he arguing with himself? With voices in his head? He really was going insane, wasn't he?

"_Our advice is intended to help you, you have no reason to not listen," i_t explained calmly.

"_If I listened to you I'd basically just be using Sasuke and Sakura for this exam only to toss them aside afterward!"_ Naruto growled out loud as he argued internally.

"_They weigh heavily on your heart. They distract you, you'd be better without them. They care too little for you,"_ the softer male voice spoke up. _"You do need them for this exam, but trying to be their friends only hurts you when they push you away. You should use them as you need, nothing more."_

"_Your obnoxious 'advice' is what's distracting me!"_ Naruto grit his teeth in anger.

"_Stop, advance slowly. Something is ahead,"_ the female voice suddenly spoke up. He regretted listening somewhat, as it made him feel like he was arguing against the voices only to do exactly as one of them said. However, he _did_ listen and advanced through the trees more slowly. He peeked through a small gap in the foliage as he noticed what the female voice had mentioned.

What he saw was Sasuke and Sakura being menaced by another massive snake with a strange man standing atop its head.

"We don't even have a scroll! Leave us alone!" Sasuke shouted, clearly terrified.

"Oh, well, then I guess I'll have to let you go. Just like you did to that poor Ame-nin," the man on the snake chuckled darkly. Sasuke's eyes widened, realizing he was probably screwed.

"FINE! YOU WANT A SCROLL! COME GET IT!" Naruto roared and suddenly burst out of the trees, his body wreathed in red chakra. He flew forward and kicked the massive snake in the head, actually causing the titanic beast to lose its balance. Naruto rebounded and used chakra to land on the side of a tree while the snake was busy getting its bearings back. The snake hissed and parted its jaws once it had recovered, planning to attack Naruto. Naruto was ready though and flung a quartet of shuriken at it, causing the snake to flinch and duck its head, trying to protect its eyes and mouth. Meanwhile, Naruto raced up the side of his tree until he reached a branch and was standing upside down.

Once in place, Naruto jumped off the branch with all his might, becoming like a meteor bearing down on the snake. He had a kunai in hand and upon impact stabbed deeply into the snake's head. He felt some thing give and saw that he'd stabbed down until only half of the hilt was still showing. While the snake writhed in pain, Naruto stomped down on the hilt, shoving the kunai in as deep as he could get it to go. Upon doing that the snake suddenly tottered, losing control of its body. Moments later it crashed down against a tree, quite dead.

Naruto stood atop his kill before glaring up at Sasuke,

"What the hell is your problem, coward? This is two of these fucking snakes I've killed now. You should have at least tried! You actually know ninjutsu!" he shouted up at the Uchiha. Sasuke wasn't sure how to respond. After all, how does one argue with the person who just killed a 100 foot long snake and saved your life?

"_Behind, turn and grab!"_ The female voice warned sharply. Naruto listened, turning around just in time to grab a... tongue.

"_Oh that is just wrong."_ Naruto nearly gagged, but didn't miss a beat as he took hold. He wrapped the hideous thing around his fist once and then slammed the tongue against the tree the snake had fallen against. With his other hand he pulled out his second to last kunai and pinned it against the tree so he could let go of the slimy thing.

At the other end of the tongue, the man who'd commanded the now dead snake's eyes went wide in shock and pain. He hadn't expected such a rapid and violent response to his sneak attack. His eyes widened further when Naruto took the tongue in both hands and pulled with all his might. The man flew through the air... and right into Naruto's Kyuubi powered punch. The man's face exploded with pain and he fell back, laying atop the dead snake's head, seemingly unconscious. Who could get up from such an impact?

"_N-no way! When did Naruto get this strong? This is insane!"_ Sasuke thought, fist clenched in rage, jealously, confusion, and even fear. He wasn't sure who to be more afraid of, the snake man or Naruto!

Naruto panted after such a rapid series of exertion.

"_He moves!"_ the female voice warned. Naruto looked down to see the man slowly rise. Naruto dashed forward to punch him, but the man flowed around him like water and ended up behind him. He didn't attack and instead freed his tongue from the tree. The long thing slid fully back into his mouth; a truly sickening display.

"Very impressive, Kyuubi child," the man hissed. "You're stronger than I would have expected. However, you are not what I need."

"What are you talking about?" Naruto growled, but received no response.

"Perhaps if things work out, I will find a use for you later. So I'll let you live. After I deal with you, do try to survive the rest of these exams," the man chuckled.

"_Duck!" _Naruto was altered a split second before the man attacked. He ducked under a punch. _"To the side, then back!"_ Naruto next avoided a knee and then the man's other hand reaching out for him. He back flipped off the deceased snake's head and landed on a lower branch.

"_You have one kunai and three shuriken left along with all your smoke bombs and two exploding notes. You forgot to pack wires even after being reminded. Twice."_ The elder voice listed out what weapons Naruto had.

"_Great. The voices in my head are pissy..."_ Naruto grumbled.

"_I was simply reciting-"_

"_Yeah, yeah, thanks. Shut up and let the fighty voice talk now."_ Naruto brushed it off as the snake man literally slithered down a tree, quite rapidly, towards him. As the man faced him the engagement seemed like it would be short and sweet as Naruto was guided by the female voice as usual. He struck a killing blow before too long, but the man dissolved into mud. The voices never even had a chance to warn him about the follow-up attack as he was grabbed from behind and the man slammed his hand down onto Naruto's stomach. Everything went black...

**. . .**

Sakura was currently sitting outside of a small alcove, fighting off sleep. After Naruto had been defeated Sasuke had summoned up his courage, but had lost as well. Somehow even attempting to incinerate the snake man hadn't worked. On top of that, Sasuke now had a strange mark on his neck.

The petty silver lining was that the snake man apparently hadn't thought to search Naruto for their scroll, or maybe Sasuke had distracted him. She wasn't sure she even wanted to stay in these exams though. With all the things that were happening, she felt completely outclassed. There were terrifying people out there, something that was suddenly all too obvious to her. What if there were more like that and she had to go up against them?

"Stupid squirrel..." Sakura muttered and quickly threw a kunai to scare a nearby squirrel away. She didn't need it setting off her traps. She couldn't defend Naruto and Sasuke from an enemy team on her own, so her traps were her best chance at the moment.

"What's a matter girl? Afraid of the small furry forest critters?" Sakura's heart sank when two enemy genin from Oto suddenly appeared, walking towards her.

"_A little closer... almost... almost..."_ Saura tried not to look at where she'd put her traps, she didn't want to tip them off. Her traps were not that big, but there was a chance they were deadly. She wasn't sure if she was ready to watch people be killed before her... again... but it was better than being killed herself she supposed.

"Heh, hold up." One with spiky hair said and knelt down. "Oh looky, trip wire hooked up to an exploding note. You're a nasty little bitch." He glanced up at Sakura.

"Maybe..." Sakura glared and suddenly stood up. She quickly pulled out a kunai and cut a nearby invisible wire. The next thing the two Oto-nin knew, a massive log was freed from the forest above. It was an old, dead branch that Sakura had found and rigged up into a trap.

"Holy shi-" The spiky haired one said upon turning around. He hadn't expected that. Sakura hadn't expected that he'd be able to blast it in half though, simply by aiming his palms at it, "ZANKUUHA!" The boy shouted and the described action occurred, seemingly caused by a powerful burst of air. "Heh, not ba-" His eyes widened when Sakura pulled another wire. "You just set off the exploding note... didn't you...?" He twitched and looked down. She had.

Him and his partner quickly ran in opposite directions, barely escaping the blast radius in time. Unfortunately, Sakura hadn't had the time or energy to set up more traps. She hadn't thought her log would fail and figured the explosive trap was enough back-up.

"Such nice hair!" Sakura suddenly felt pain as her hair was grabbed tightly from behind. Sakura clutched at her hair, but couldn't wrestle free. "I have long hair, but I never really took the time to make it quite! This! Nice!" She punctuated her words by twisting and pulling at Sakura's hair, amplifying the pain. Sakura cried out, feeling helpless.

Wait, why should she feel helpless? She didn't fight with her hair. Her arms and legs were completely free. She may have been tired, but suddenly Sakura's mind began to race faster than ever before. She was on her knees, so with some effort she could probably force her way to her feet. However, any movement or sign of attack with leave her with precious little time before her assailant reacted. So she'd just move fast then...

Sakura suddenly forced her way up to her feet, and twisted around. It hurt like hell with the way her hair was being held, but she grit her teeth and worked through it. She reached up and grabbed the girl's arm that was holding her hair and tugged, pulling her closer. This act mercifully reduced the tension on her hair alleviating the pain, but it also meant Sakura could easily lift her foot and kick the girl in the stomach. With the girl off balance and her grip on Sakura's hair loosened, Sakura reached up and grabbed her throat.

Girl in hand, she quickly pushed her back and slammed her against the tree which had Naruto and Sasuke under it. Sakura didn't let up on the girl and grabbed _her _hair.

"You! Won't! Kill! Us!" Sakura shouted in a near frenzy, slamming the girl's head violently into the tree again and again. Unlike her victim, she wasn't planning to play around and torment the girl. No, she was going to bash her skull in. Once the tree bark was red with the girl's blood, Sakura took the back of her head and then threw the unconscious girl face first into the ground. She then stood there panting and glanced up at the other two who were staring in surprise at the violent display.

"Very... nasty... little bitch..." The spiky haired one twitched.

"Are you going to soil your trousers or kill her?" His partner, whose entire head was bandaged, glanced at him.

"Shut up, I'm not scared of a girl with _pink_ hair. Kin's just stupid," Spiky growled. "I'll finish her off in like 10 second-" He ducked as a shuriken whizzed past his head. "Right then..." He cracked his knuckles and... ducked as two more went by. "If it didn't work the first time, why do it again?" he shouted... and then glanced down as a kunai stabbed into the earth at his feet. "OH COME ON!" He ran away from it as fast as he could before the explosive note attached to it went off.

Spiky coughed and shielded his eyes as the dirt and dust from the explosion settled. He looked up just in time to see that Sakura had taken the opportunity to close the distance between them. He leaned back to avoid a punch and quickly countered by grabbing her wrist and kneeing her in the gut upon pulling her off balance.

Sakura quickly stumbled away, knowing she couldn't afford to be near him while her guard was down. She remembered what Naruto had said now, about her not being good enough to launch attacks against others. She'd hoped the element of surprise would have helped with that, but luck was not on her side apparently.

"Heheh, I'm gonna beat the hell out of you little girl! I'm not even gonna bother with jutsu against you! Look at you, you can barely stand!" Spiky tore at her confidence with every word.

"You're not that much bigger..." Sakura muttered. In fact Spiky seemed a little scrawny.

"Tch, whatever," Spiky said and then lunged forward, throwing a wide punch at her face. He seemed to be planning to overpower her rather than use finesse. That was fine, she'd trained enough to handle such a simple punch. She raised one arm and winced as she barely held back the weight of his punch. However she countered, slipping forward and ramming her elbow into his jaw.

She followed up, both of her hands gripping his right shoulder, and then slammed her knee into his right leg. At this point Spiky was very off balance and it only took one quick movement of her leg to hook his left leg and then with her arms pull him off his feet and throw him to the ground.

Unfortunately Spiky was a ninja just like her, so despite the initial shock of being countered and taken to the ground, he didn't waste any time and got to his feet within moments of hitting the ground. He glared at her, now very wary.

"Ah screw it..." He raised his palms up and aimed them at her, letting Sakura see the strange devices implanted in him. Her eyes widened, knowing he was rescinding his plan of not using jutsu. "ZANKUUHA!" When the dust from the air wave settled, there was no sign of Sakura. "Ha, she was so weak I shredded her into nothing!" He laughed, seeming pleased with his work. He flinched at the sound of metal on metal only a few feet from his head and turned to see two four shuriken clatter to the ground.

"No. No you didn't." His bandaged partner said, having just barely deflected the weapons with his own. "She probably used Kawarimi. You gave her too much warning!" he scolded.

**. . .**

"_Awaken."_ the voice whispered. Naruto ignored it, he was so tired.

"_You say you will not leave them. Until you listen to me, you will be far too affected by their deaths. You must awaken!"_ Another voice spoke. Still Naruto ignored it. Couldn't they just let him rest?

"_You must listen to them. Please get up now."_ Something about this last voice, it was new. Something about it made him want to listen. He'd never wanted to listen to anything more in his life. He had no idea why.

It's a rare thing to realize one is asleep. It's even rarer to be so lucid that one can actually call themselves back to the world of the waking at will. Naruto had one of these rare moments and his eyes snapped open. It was still dark, but he could see light streaming in from the side and rolled over. He saw Sasuke next to him sleeping and outside he heard fighting. Sasuke must have been more than simply sleeping if there was a battle going on.

Wait, where was Sakura? One of the voices had mentioned his teammates dying... it must have been Sakura who was fighting!

"_No wires eh? Fine, I'll fix that now!"_ Naruto reached into Sasuke's weapon pouch and pulled out his string, though it was half used up. He quickly but quietly crept out of the small area he'd been sleeping in and saw a battered and beaten Sakura pinned against a tree, arm twisted behind her back as her face was pressed up against the bark. A spiky haired Oto-nin was her aggressor.

However, Sakura showed how much of her training she remembered and simultaneously stomped on Spiky's foot and then slammed the back of her head into his nose. His grip loosened enough for her to raise her free arm and elbow him in the head, knocking him away. She spun around and, using the tree as a base, lifted both legs up and kicked Spiky in the chest sending him tumbling away.

Afterward though, Sakura fell roughly to a sitting position at the base of the tree, seeming completely out of energy. If she didn't get help soon, she wouldn't be able to fight off another attack. Such an attack seemed imminent as Spiky rose to his feet, still having plenty of energy and fueled further by rage.

"Zaku! Watch out!" Spiky was warned by a teammate whose entire face was covered by bandages. Zaku turned in time to see two shuriken flying at him, but he simply turned to let them fly past.

"Gee, thanks for warning me about that, Dosu. I might have felt a breeze..." Zaku muttered and glared at Naruto. His eyes widened when he felt something and realized the shuriken had been attached to wires. The next thing he knew he was tied up, though loosely.

"_Shit... I'm not good with wires!"_ Naruto grimaced at the sight of his own shoddy attempt to bind Zaku. However, he pulled as hard as he could and managed to pull Zaku off his feet. He'd at least be tangled up for a few a bit letting Naruto focus on bandage head.

"Hmph, looks like one of them woke up. I guess this might really be annoying," Dosu grumbled. "I'll take care of this one."

"Dammit! This is a pain in the ass!" Zaku shouted as he tried to wriggle out of the wires.

"_Be careful fighting the one with bandages. The object on his arm must do something..."_ The elder voice spoke up.

"_You think?" _Naruto replied sharply, annoyed at it stating the obvious. _"But I only have one shuriken left and no kunai..."_ He'd lost his last kunai when he'd been knocked out.

"_Then we will use only one shuriken to defeat him,"_ the female voice spoke. _"Are you ready?"_

"_. . . alright. You better have a good plan."_ Naruto took a fighting stance.

"_Run directly at him,"_ the voice ordered.

"_That seems backwards..."_ Naruto didn't get it.

"_I thought you trusted her," t_he elder voice said.

"_Gah! Fine!"_ Naruto shook his head but with a roar of effort charged directly at the bandaged one.

"_To the side, quickly!"_ The female voiced urged forcefully. Naruto felt that he wouldn't have time to simply start running in the new direction and dived. _"Get behind him!"_ Naruto rolled out of the dive and pushed off as hard as he could to move around behind Dosu. However, his opponent wasn't simply standing there and turned to keep his eyes on Naruto. _"Keep moving around him as fast as you can... be ready to grab your weapon."_ Naruto kept it up, running and jumping, trying to keep Dosu's eyes off him, which seemed to be the idea.

"What the hell are you doing?" Dosu grumbled and shook his head, actually starting to feel a little dizzy.

"_NOW! His foot!"_ The voice commanded. Naruto obeyed and slid to a stop and threw the Shuriken. It was aimed from Dosu's blind spot so he didn't notice until it stabbed into his foot. He howled in pain and fell to a knee. Naruto didn't have to be told what to do and was already rushing towards Dosu. Dosu looked up from his injured foot in time to see Naruto's knee flying into his face. The force was enough to send him sliding backwards.

"Naruto!" Sakura suddenly called out a warning. Naruto looked up and saw that Zaku had finally freed himself.

"That's it, you're dead!" Zaku held his hands out towards Naruto... and then nothing happened. "I-I can't move! What the hell?" Naruto then noticed something weird was happening with Zaku's shadow as it seemed to be stretching into the forest. A moment later a chubby kid burst out of the treeline and punched Zaku in the jaw, causing his head to snap around and his eyes to roll back into his head.

"Chouji? What are you doing here?" Naruto asked, thankful for the assistance but still nervous since they were enemies for this part of the exams.

"I-Ino?" Naruto glanced over, hearing Sakura speak. Ino was indeed amongst them as well, followed shortly by Shikamaru.

"Well I figured even if Naruto suddenly learned to fight it wouldn't be enough. If anyone's taking you out, forehead, it's me. Got it?" Ino frowned.

"Err... thanks..." Sakura smiled weakly, exhausted from trying to fight off the trio of enemies alone. "How long were you watching?" Ino glanced to the side at being asked this. "Ino?"

"Umm... almost since the beginning?" Ino blushed slightly in embarrassment. "B-but don't get upset or anything, technically we're opponents, be glad we helped at all,especially after what you said earlier!"

"Ugh... son of a..." They heard Dosu groan, but he was silenced as Naruto walked over and kicked him in the head.

"I almost died! Numerous times!" Sakura shouted in shock.

"I was about to help when you got pinned against the tree, but then we saw Naruto get up and decided to wait and see how things went..." Ino scratched the back of her head.

"You wanted to see how things went? I know we're not friends anymore, but are you serious?" Sakura got to her feet now, some of her strength returning and fueled by pure incredulity. "We're still from the same village!"

"Why are you so pissed off? You're alive!" Ino glared, feeling completely unappreciated. She was the one who'd convinced Shikamaru and Chouji to step in when they had!

"How could you wait so long?" Sakura wasn't going to accept Ino's weak arguments. "You waited until you were hardly even needed anymore!"

"W-well... get over it! It is how it is!" Ino scowled. Secretly she was thinking that Sakura had a point, but she'd never admit it out loud.

"Just go, Ino," Sakura muttered and shook her head.

"What?" Ino looked shocked, feeling that she was being brushed off.

"I don't need your help. I'm not the little girl you knew anymore. Now I'm thinking even being friends for the sake of it isn't possible. We stopped for a stupid reason, but now I have a better one," Sakura glared and then stalked off. Naruto blinked, wondering what he'd just witnessed.

"_They clearly have a history with each other,"_ the soft voice said.

"_Yeah, I got that,"_ Naruto sighed.

"_There is a lot of regret and pain involved in it. Did you get that?"_ the voice continued, almost sounding annoyed.

"_Well... it's obvious isn't it?"_ Naruto honestly hadn't put that much thought into it.

"_If you insist on her being a friend then such details are important." _With that, Naruto felt that the voice was done speaking. Ino's team didn't stick around much longer and left. Naruto then set about to binding the Oto-nin so that they would be no threat even if they woke up. He also took their scroll and supplies while he was at it.

He walked back to the hollowed out space under the tree he'd woken up in. Sakura was sitting down outside the entrance and leaning against the tree. She looked like she was barely staying awake.

"Uhh, sorry I didn't wake up sooner..." Was the only thing Naruto could think to say.

"Not like you could control that," Sakura mumbled, not seeming to care one way or the other right now.

"Are you OK?" Naruto asked.

"I'm fine," Sakura replied tersely.

"I can keep watch. You look like you need sleep." Naruto said.

"Right... sleep..." Sakura didn't even move, she just turned her head to side, seeming to plan on sleeping in that exact spot. Naruto shook his head, feeling guilty. Even Sakura, to his surprise, didn't seem to blame him for sleeping through over half the fight, but he still felt guilty.

**. . .**

Both of his teammates were sleeping. He couldn't help but feel a little vulnerable. The strange snake man had proven that the voices didn't make him invincible. Even the spiky haired kid, Zaku, had almost hit him with some form of attack. He was starting to think he'd been getting a little cocky. OK he definitely had been. Cockiness and overconfidence were things he hated in others and yet he'd been taking on those traits. He found it strange that the voices hadn't commented on that. And they still weren't. And they still weren't... and they still-

"_Come on! This is where you butt in and justify whatever you were doing to me!"_ Naruto growled mentally. He got no response. _"Hmph. Fine... be that way."_ He sighed, giving up for now. He then closed his eyes and tried to relax. He was supposed to be keeping watch, but the voices would cover for him. _"Hey Kyuubi." _He was hoping he could get through to it. He had never really spoken to it while conscious. He got no response, which didn't surprise him, but he was startled to find he couldn't feel the Kyuubi at all.

"_Your friend is awakening,"_ the elder voice spoke a few seconds later, snapping him out of his worries. Somehow Naruto knew he meant Sasuke, despite not specifying. Sure enough, Sasuke walked out of the small hollow a moment later. Naruto grew concerned when a mark on his neck began to spread out across his body, followed by a strange chakra. Sasuke glanced down at Sakura, and then over at Naruto.

"What happened?" he asked, his tone of voice sounding strange and far away, as if it wasn't really Sasuke speaking.

"We were attacked. Sakura held them off until I woke up," Naruto replied, looking at Sasuke nervously. This was something new.

"_Something is wrong..."_ the soft voice said.

"_You think?"_ Naruto frowned outwardly.

"_His entire demeanor has changed. Be wary."_

"And?" Sasuke looked around.

"Well, we won. I tied them u-"

"I see them." Sasuke spotted the tied up and unconscious Oto team. He then began to walk towards them.

"Sasuke," Naruto called out, wondering what he was up to. He got no answer, the Uchiha just kept walking, his hand twitching almost excitedly. "Sasuke! Dammit..." Naruto groaned, knowing Sasuke was up to something unpleasant.

"_He's going to kill them,"_ the soft voice spoke. It spoke a little too calmly for Naruto's liking. However, it got Naruto moving and he quickly intercepted Sasuke.

"No! I know what you're thinking. No." Naruto stared right into Sasuke's eyes.

"And what am I thinking?" Sasuke smirked, his eyes wild.

"You're not killing them. They're defenseless. Tied up," Naruto replied firmly.

"And what if they escape? What if they come after us again with a better plan? No, killing them is for the best. Besides, don't you want them to pay for hurting Sakura? Surely you of all peop-"

"I said NO!" Naruto shouted.

"Hmph. You're too soft. You're not fit to be a leader. Get out of my way." Sasuke tried to walk by, but Naruto just moved in his way again.

"I've been doing better than you have." Naruto glared intensely. He had a feeling Sasuke was about to be done talking.

"Don't even think of saying room 301..." Sasuke growled angrily, hands balling into fists.

"I was thinking about that giant snake!"

"Oh yeah? Well who do you think fought the bastard who summoned it after he knocked you out!" Sasuke roared, getting right in Naruto's face.

"Who kept you alive so you could?" Naruto countered, his voice just as loud. He then pushed Sasuke back. Sasuke flinched, as if he was about to throw a punch and Naruto copied the movement. Their faces were a mere inch apart, both tense and ready to fight. To his surprise, and relief, Sasuke actually backed down. The strange markings on his body receded. He stumbled a little, clutching at the mark on his neck.

"Damn you..." Sasuke muttered and staggered off. Naruto just sighed. Now he was worried about Sasuke. He was worried about all of them. He couldn't feel the Kyuubi, Sasuke had a strange mark on his neck, and Sakura could barely walk after the beating she took. Right now he'd settle for them getting out of this forest alive.

* * *

**Oh no! Troubles abound! Will they make it? Spoiler, they will. I mean come on, they were weaker in the manga and made it. If you honestly had doubts... well... you shouldn't.**

**Now to preemptively quell any concerns:**

**1. You moron, Sakura shouldn't be that strong!**

**My response: Fuck you, hater. Get over it. She still lost to Zaku.**

**2. Stop bashing Sasuke! Sasuke is strong and cool and blah blah blah.**

**My response: I hate Sasuke. No I'm not bashing him. Am I taking some level of enjoyment from him being outdone by Naruto at every turn lately? Yes. Yes I am. However, I am not bashing him... much. But I promise it's not going to be a constant theme. That's all I'm going to say on the matter for now though.**

**3. Naruto is too different.**

**My response: Get the hell out of my fic.**

**Well that was fun! I can't think of anything else you might bitch about off the top of my head. However, I'm going to hope that most of you are intelligent enough to wait and see where I'm going with things.**

**Now for the mail bag!**

**Mywickedways: Oh come on! You're making me blush! I'm sorry I stopped writing for so long. Hopefully you'll still be around to read this chapter!**

**rockon5002: Kukuku! Read and find out! But seriously, you can't expect me to answer that!**

**Dave-MingChang: I know, I know. I'm awesome. Thank you.**

**For the rest of you who left smaller reviews, thank you, it still lets me know you care! Thank you! Now go get five friends to read and review this or random ghost number 666 will haunt the socks in your dresser drawer and your feet will get COLD!**

**Making fun of chain comments ftw...**

**Also, you can always check my profile to check the status of any fic I have going. I do my best to keep it updated and will slap a date on most updates so you know what's going on. Just scroll down to the 'My Fics' section of my profile and check the underlined status area. (Yes I know this is at the top too, but I want to make sure people know about this since I've never advertised it before.)**


	5. Violent Interim

**I got enough reviews to be pretty happy. Not quite on the level of some of my other fics, but good enough. Can't think of much else to say, so I'll just respond to the first review of Chapter 4.**

**hash4uall: I wouldn't say he _begged_ Sakura... although I did use the word "begged" didn't I? I would say he intelligently coerced her because he knew the Chuunin exams would go more smoothly if Sakura was willing to work with him and had better training. As you can see from her fight against the Oto Genin, it payed off. Also, keep in mind he's still rebelling against the voices most of the time, and one of them wants him to ignore Sakura and Sasuke, so he's obviously going to do the opposite!**

**And on we go...**

* * *

**Violent Interim**

Naruto's fears had been somewhat unfounded. It had been slow going after the beating they'd taken, but only two noteworthy events had occurred: stumbling across a guy who'd been separated form his team, and running into the two teammates of the genin Sasuke had killed.

The first one they'd told to get lost, and Naruto had made short work of the other two. Sakura was recovering slowly, but for the most part all she could reasonably manage was helping Sasuke walk. Whatever that mark was, it was leaving Sasuke weak when it was dormant. Finally though, the tower was before them with nothing left in their way.

Once inside they found themselves in a mostly empty room with no clear sign of what to do next. However, there was _a_ sign and Naruto read it. It made absolutely no sense. Something about heaven.

"_The scrolls are heaven and earth scrolls correct? The sign speaks of heaven and earth, open the scrolls,"_ the wise voice spoke. Naruto still didn't trust the voices, but sometimes they made sense.

"We should probably open the sc-" Sakura started to speak, having come to a similar conclusion, but she was cut off as Naruto threw the earth scroll to her.

"Yep," Naruto replied, knowing what she was going to say. He already had the heaven scroll in his hands. They both opened the scrolls and immediately something began to happen. Naruto didn't need to wait for a voice to tell him to toss the scroll away quickly and Sakura copied his actions.

With a loud noise and a swirl of smoke, somebody appeared before them. It was Iruka.

"So, you made it. Not bad," the man said casually.

"Iruka-sensei? How? Why?" Naruto asked, not understanding at all.

"I can tell how, it was a summoning technique. The scrolls had summoning symbols on them," Sasuke explained. He smirked; there were still some things he had over Naruto it seemed.

"As for why," Iruka interjected. "If you opened a scroll early I'd still have been summoned, but instead of congratulating you I'd be beating you senseless for breaking the rules."

"Wh-what?" Sakura twitched nervously.

"Or at least rendering you unconscious in some way or another to prevent you from passing the test," Iruka amended.

"So what about the sign on the wall?" Naruto asked. "It kinda hints that we were supposed to open the scrolls, but else does it mean? It seems poetic or something."

"I'm here to explain that too, actually." Iruka nodded. "It's the Chuunin motto. Heaven refers tot he mind, and earth the body. 'If you lack heaven, seek wisdom, be prepared. If you lack earth, run the fields, seek advantages.' So basically, find your weaknesses and eliminate them so that you can succeed in even the most difficult of missions."

"But there was a word missing on the sign," Sakura pointed out.

"Ah, that last part is in the scrolls." Iruke held up a scroll. "'These rules will guide a person's extremes,'" he read out. "You've passed the survival test, designed to test all the skills you need to be a Chuunin. It's not over yet, for a Chuunin is a military rank, a captain who will guide a team. Knowledge, stamina, wisdom, all of these are needed if you are to carry out your duties properly. As you move ahead to the next test, keep that in mind. Keep the Chuunin motto in mind."

"_Stamina comes naturally to you. We can supply the rest when you falter. Can't you see? Your own sensei's words tell you that you need us," _the elder voice spoke.

"_Maybe you can be useful, but I don't need you!"_ Naruto protested mentally. Leave it to those voices to ruin a happy moment.

"Lastly, don't push yourselves too hard. Especially you, Naruto," Iruka concluded. "Sometimes I worry."

"Well don't. I'm a shinobi now, I earned this headband, or did you forget that part?" Naruto argued, reminding Iruka of when Naruto had saved him from Mizuki when he turned traitor.

"Heh, I suppose you're right. All right then, do your best. All three of you." Iruka nodded in resignation.

**. . .**

It turned out more teams made it through than expected, seven in fact. Apparently the Oto genin they'd defeated had gotten free and made it as well, though they all looked worse for wear. Finding two scrolls after being beaten and tied up couldn't have been a pleasant experience. Naruto couldn't find it in him to pity the three though.

It turned out the Chuunin exams were a replacement for all out war between the shinobi nations. The best students would fight their way through, showing what their country had to offer. In the end, it seemed Konoha had the most to offer, with a vast majority of the remaining teams belonging to said village. Out of the seven, five teams were from Konoha, with the Oto team and a team from Suna comprising of the other two.

Apparently seven teams was too many though, and a set of preliminary matches had been set up to thin them out further. Naruto's team had only had a few hours to rest, and hopefully it would be enough to get them past, as they wouldn't have any more time to rest. The second test had officially ended no more than twenty minutes ago, and now the prelims would begin.

An electronic board was set up on the wall of a large room. The rest of the room was a huge balcony along one wall where they would stand when not fighting, and a large, rectangular arena for those who were. There was also a huge statue in the shape of hands making a hand seal for ninjutsu. Lastly was a window to a room from where the Hokage and a few others could watch in a little more comfort.

They were given a chance to give up since they'd been allowed no rest, and only one person did, the older boy who'd earlier claimed to have been separated from his team. After that the board flashed to life, scrolling through names at a blinding rate. Finally two were decided on: Uchiha Sasuke V.S. Akado Yoroi.

"_Not good, Sasuke has that mark on his neck!" _Naruto grimaced. Sasuke must have noticed because he shot Naruto a hateful glare and then turned his attention towards Yoroi, who wore a simple outfit that included a cloth mask that hung loosely and covered the lower portion of his face, and sunglasses that covered his eyes. His teammates, including the boy who'd left, had similar outfits, though the one who'd quit did not have his face obscured and had regular glasses.

Naruto sighed lightly and decided to let Sasuke take his chances. There were enough jounin around to step in if things went poorly. Everyone but the proctor and the two combatants left to go stand on the balcony.

"Begin!" the proctor announced once it was clear. The fight seemed to almost immediately go in Sasuke's favor. Sasuke, despite his clearly strong desire to fight, stumbled mid-fight. The seal definitely affected Sasuke negatively. Despite this though, he was able to dodge Yoroi's attacks until he got the older boy in an arm lock. It seemed the fight wouldn't last much longer.

However, Yoroi simply twisted his hand and grabbed Sasuke. For no apparent reason, Sasuke let go, looking completely stunned. Yoroi then moved to a more stable position and grabbed Sasuke's head. Sasuke seemed to lack the strength to properly fight back for some reason. Finally though, Sasuke managed to get his foot beneath Yoroi and shove him off.

Yoroi got up and then chuckled and spoke, but it was too quiet to hear from the balcony. Sasuke's response came in a very audible yell, however.

"You don't scare me! This fight is nothing compared to what I've seen and done!" Sasuke got to his feet, seeming undeservedly confident with the way his legs shook as they struggled to support him. Yoroi did not respond, but charged forward. He seemed to be using no real tactics, seeming to only want to grab Sasuke again. Sasuke was able to dodge though, if only by a hair's breadth each time.

"_I don't get it..." _Naruto thought. He'd never admit it, but he was hoping a voice would tell him what was happening.

"_It seems likely that the older one, Yoroi, is using a technique when he touches Sasuke. There are numerous techniques which can drain stamina and chakra, that is the most likely answer," _the elder voice explained, just as Naruto had secretly hoped.

Back with the fight, Sasuke finally made a move to fight back again. He took a risk, making his most narrow dodge yet, and then grabbed Yoroi's wrist, twisting his arm so the elbow faced up. Keeping to the far side of Yoroi's free hand, with his chest parallel to the arm he'd captured, Sasuke took _his_ free arm and brought it down in a brutal elbow to break Yoroi's elbow, snapping the arm backwards at the joint. Yoroi howled in pain, but Sasuke silenced him by next taking the hand of the arm he'd used to cripple Yoroi and chopping it into Yoroi's throat, leaving him coughing and struggling for breath.

Sasuke finished it with a simple punch to the face that left Yoroi, if not unconscious at least incapacitated enough to take him out of the fight.

"H-has Sasuke always been this cruel when he fights?" Sakura whimpered as the proctor called the match in Sasuke's favor. First he'd killed the Ame genin, and now he'd broken a fellow Konoha genin's arm backwards. Sakura thought Sasuke's take-down method had been a little extreme.

"Maybe he's compensating for something." Naruto smirked. They were shinobi, maybe he wasn't ready to kill someone during something like the Chuuin exams, but a broken arm was just something that came with their career. Sakura glared at him, but then Kakashi spoke up.

"Cruel, maybe, maybe not. In a fight you do what you have to to win. In these matches, even killing won't be penalized, though we'll do our best to stop it. When your match happens, Sakura, don't pull any punches. You won't have time to think of a less painful alternative when attacking your opponent, and they probably won't bother to when attacking you," Kakashi explained.

"_Good advice for once," _the female voice made a rare appearance out of battle. Out of all the voices, she was probably the only one he didn't dislike. She helped him win fights and otherwise stayed out of his business.

"Yeah, don't worry about a broken their bones, those heal," Naruto added. Sakura groaned but nodded. "In fact, you should probably try to break bones. Nothing slows you down like a busted knee!"

"Sh-shut up!" Sakura shrank down. This was too much right now.

"But didn't you nearly bash in that girl's skull back in the forest? I know I didn't hit her in the head, and Sasuke was unconscious for the entire fight." Naruto hadn't seen it happen, but he definitely recalled the girl having a serious, and recent, head injury.

"I-I-"

"Really? Well, sounds like you made yourself useful." Kakashi nodded at Sakura. She couldn't decide whether or not to take it as a compliment or an insult since it sounded like Kakashi had been doubting her.

"I j-just did what I had to..."

"Exactly what I'm trying to say, Sakura." Kakashi leaned a little closer to her to look her right in the eye. "You can't worry about your opponent when it's a serious fight like this." During their conversation, Sasuke had quietly returned and the next match had started. They began to watch as it got more serious. It was Zaku, one of the Oto genin, against a former classmate, Shino.

Shino seemed to hold his own quite well, and then ended the fight in a way that made Sasuke seem gentle. Without warning, one of Zaku's arms blew completely in half, leaving his severed forearm lying on the ground and him lying on the floor with a bloody stump. His other arm was bleeding heavily too.

"OK, even I'll admit that's a little extreme," Kakashi frowned. "I don't think you'll find yourself being forced to do that today, Sakura."

"It looks like Shino just made that guy's arm cannon things malfunction," Naruto observed, earning a curious glance from Kakashi.

After that was an even stranger match with Tsurugi Misumi against Kankuro. Misumi was Yoroi's teammate, and Kankuro was one of the Suna genin. At first it seemed Musumi had won, having the ability to make his body extremely flexible to coil around his enemy and break Kankuro's bones. Kankuro had a surprise in that the body that Misumi had supposedly broken was only a puppet in disguise. Kankuro had hidden in a large, wrapped object which the puppet had placed aside before the match had begun. Now revealing himself, Kankuro had the puppet wrap its six, spindly arms around Misumi and return the favor, breaking many of Misumi's bones. The match was over.

"And I thought I was a freak," Naruto commented.

"You are," Sasuke scoffed. Sakura just groaned, the match hadn't been as explicit as the last one, but the sound of snapping bones was still creepy. After the forest and the first two matches, she was getting sick of blood and broken bones.

When the next match was announced with her as a combatant, Sakura had no desire to blow her opponent's arms apart, or even break bones, in fact didn't want to fight her opponent at all. The board read: Haruno Sakura V.S. Yamanaka Ino.

"_Remember when I mentioned those important details about your friend?" _the annoying, softer voice spoke.

"_Yeah,"_ Naruto responded dully.

"_That statement is about to become extremely relevant. Watch closely."_

Naruto could plainly see that Sakura was reluctant to fight Ino. He hoped she'd get over whatever was bothering her and remember what he'd taught her. He wasn't sure how strong of a fighter Ino was, but he suspected that Sakura could beat her if she put her mind to it. He just wasn't sure Sakura would be able to do it. Their meeting in the forest had been unpleasant, but they hadn't been being forced to fight each other against their will. This would be a completely different scenario.

The two girls squared off. Immediately Naruto was not impressed with Ino's stance, it was very basic. He groaned when Sakura took an almost identical stance, he'd trained her better than that! He wanted to bash his head against the rail as the fight began. They were about even, but Sakura actually seemed to be losing. Her form was way off.

"_She can't find her motivation, it's plain on her face even at this distance. Her will to fight is simply not there,"_ the soft voice spoke again. _"There are no rules that say you can't speak. I'm curious, if this girl is supposed to be your teammate and friend, will she respond if you attempt to motivate her? It may be necessary at this rate."_

Then, mid battle, they stopped fighting and began arguing. It seemed heated and extremely emotional. Naruto caught bits and pieces, some of which made him sigh, but other parts surprised him a little. He felt it was completely out of place, but he supposed there was nothing like a fight to make everything come out into the open. It wasn't too long though, and Sakura ended it by moving her headband to where it belonged on her forehead. Ino did the same.

Finally Sakura seemed to be getting into the fight more, but she was still off. She was more determined, but she was also angry. She seemed to be focused on the desire to beat Ino, but she was forgetting to focus on how to do it. Anger had its place in a fight, but she was letting it get the better of her. If anything she was just getting sloppy now.

This culminated in Sakura throwing a punch and overextending herself, leaving her open to take a punch to the stomach, followed by a shot to the jaw that threw her off her feet. Naruto felt that the voice may have had a point, he might have to speak up. In fact, he did.

"What the hell is your problem? Stop screwing around and start fighting! You know how to do better than that!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, earning stares from everyone, but he didn't care. All that mattered was that Sakura heard him. She seemed angry at him now, glaring up at him. She then stood up and wiped her mouth, her attention back on Ino. It seemed she was ignoring him, taking the same, basic stance from before. He shook his head, she was too stubborn for her own good.

Ino moved in on Sakura, seeming confident that she was winning. She'd beaten Sakura back before Sakura had gained her confidence, and she was still keeping her lead. That was when Sakura rapidly changed her stance and slid around Ino's next punch. Sakura's knee hit Ino's leg, but it was only hard enough to distract her. Sakura then hit Ino in the face with an open palm, making Ino flinch away. This left Ino's guard almost completely destroyed and Sakura took the chance to kick Ino straight in the stomach, launching the girl off her feet and knocking the wind out of her. Ino kicked out when Sakura tried to close in, saving herself from being pinned.

Ino would be more cautious now that she knew Sakura had more to offer, but Naruto knew Ino only had so much skill at her disposal. It was his hope that Sakura would now be able to overwhelm Ino. Sakura went on the offensive this time, and Ino kept up a strong guard, trying to wait for an opening.

Sakura didn't give an opening though, and didn't wait for Ino to show one. Sakura made her own opening. She threw punches towards Ino's face, causing to to keep her guard high. In a flash she switched it up and kicked into in the side of the leg. Like with the knee it wasn't especially hard, but it took Ino off balance. Sakura followed immediately with a punch to the stomach, causing Ino to drop her guard lower, though she was too off balance for it to do any good.

Sakura went in for the kill, figuratively, and dropped an elbow onto the side of Ino's neck, striking a nerve cluster that nearly brought Ino to her knees. Sakura then grabbed Ino's hand, or more specifically two of her fingers and twisted until Ino's back was arched in an attempt to relieve the agonizing pressure. She was completely at Sakura's mercy for the moment. Sakura let Ino go, but at the same time got an arm around Ino's neck in a choke hold. She ordered Ino to yield and, as Sakura applied pressure and Ino began to choke, she did.

"_Interesting,"_ was all the soft voice had to say for itself.

"_So, will you stop complaining about my teammates?"_ Naruto asked it.

"_Will they stop treating you poorly is a better question,"_ it countered. Sakura lingered for a moment, after releasing Ino. Ino sat on the ground, clutching her aching throat. Ino must have said something, because Sakura left quite suddenly and returned to the balcony. Eventually Ino returned to the balcony as well at the proctor's urging so the next match could be announced.

"Good job!" Naruto grinned at Sakura.

"Yeah," she replied glumly.

"Cheer up, you won! You get to move on to the finals!"

"Shut up." Naruto frowned at her response. He expected the annoying soft voice would speak up, but it was mercifully quiet. "But, thank you," Sakura said after a long pause, so long he'd actually stopped paying attention and almost didn't notice.

"Huh?"

"You spoke up in my match. It helped. So... thank you. J-just don't read too much into it!" Sakura explained and then looked away from him.

"Of course. I'm your teammate, just doing my job." Naruto decided not to mention that Sasuke had barely even been paying attention to the match. In fact Sasuke was barely paying attention to anything. Naruto had his suspicions that the strange mark on his neck was probably bothering him still.

The next match had been announced, though their attention was only brought to it when the proctor announced that it was to start. It was Tenten, a Konoha genin who was a year ahead of them, and Temari, a female genin from the Suna team. Tenten had a very impressive skill with weapons, and it seemed Temari would be shredded within moments, but she had a huge fan that she used to deflect every attack Tenten attempted. Tenten resorted to a technique called Soshoryu, taking out two scrolls that burst into long smoke trails resembling two dragons spiraling upwards. It resulted in a massive assault from dozens of bladed weapons, and it seemed there was no way Temari would be able to block it all.

Temari did indeed block it all with a huge gust of wind from her fan, followed by spiraling winds that entrapped Tenten and cut into her. Tenten was dropped out of the air, landing on Temari's folded up fan in way that had to have been painful. After the match was called in Temari's favor, Tenten's teammate, the strange boy in green spandex, Lee, was only just barely able to jump down and catch her as Temari casually tossed her aside.

After a small scuffle between Temari and an enraged Lee, everyone either walked or was carried off. The next match was announced: Kin Tsuchi vs Nara Shikamaru. It was the Oto girl against one of Ino's teammates. Kin looked terrible, probably due to the head bashing Sakura had given her. Despite that, she nearly caught Shikamaru in a genjutsu, but Shikamaru used her own technique of senbon attached to strings against her. His shadow stretched across a string and back to Kin, causing her to be forced to copy his movements. He pulled out a shuriken, and so did Kin, he threw his, and Kin threw hers. It seemed pointless as when Shikamaru dodged, Kin did as well... and slammed her head into the wall behind her. At this point, one had to wonder if the poor girl was going to have serious brain damage.

Shikamaru lazily walked off, victorious, and the next match was announced: Uzumaki Naruto vs Inuzuka Kiba.

"Right! My turn!" Naruto cracked his knuckles. One way or another, he'd be winning this.

"Good luck, I guess. It'd look bad if you were the only loser here." Sakura glanced at him. It was hard to tell how sincere she was being. Naruto just nodded in response.

He faced off against Kiba in the ring moments later. Kiba looked very enthusiastic, Naruto returned the feelings, but kept his demeanor calm on the outside.

"Hah, I guess I'm being handed my victory!" Kiba laughed confidently.

"Don't be so cocky, the rest of my team won their matches, and it was _me_ who kept them alive in the forest!" Naruto chuckled. Kiba looked shocked at first, but then scoffed.

"Sure, whatever idiot." Kiba obviously didn't believe him.

"It's true." Both opponent's looked up at the balcony when Sakura spoke. Kiba's jaw looked ready to drop off, not from Sakura speaking up for Naruto, but when Sasuke of all people nodded in agreement. Even Naruto had trouble believing that one. That seal must have really been messing with Sasuke.

"Y-yeah, well their opponents must have been weaklings! Ino certainly isn't very impressive!" Kiba growled.

"Yeah? Screw you, mutt!" Ino shouted from the balcony.

"Come on, start the match so me and Akamaru can rip his head off!" Kiba shouted at the proctor, ignoring Ino.

"Very well, begin!" the proctor acquiesced. Immediately, Kiba made a hand seal and dropped to all fours, his body taking on a bestial nature.

"_Move, to the side! Now!"_ the female voice ordered just in time for Naruto to avoid Kiba's startlingly fast charge. Naruto saw an opportunity and reached out as Kiba went past. He grabbed the boy's hood and pulled as hard as he could. Kiba gagged as his momentum propelled his feet forward while the rest of him hung in place, his own jacket choking him.

"_The dog,"_ the voice warned. Naruto turned and saw Akamaru lunging at him. He leaned out of the way and grabbed the puppy by the scruff of its neck and spun, again using his victim's own momentum to help him, this time so he could toss Akamaru a fair distance away. The puppy landed on its side, but managed to roll to its feet, albeit a bit unsteadily.

Dealing with Akamaru meant that Naruto had been forced to let go of Kiba though, and the boy rose to his feet and immediately went on the offensive.

"_He's too strong, evade!"_ the female voice said. Naruto jumped to the side again, but Kiba managed to halt his movement this time and changed direction to follow, not leaving an easy opening. Kiba swiped with his hand, his nails turned into claws that were plenty sharp enough to cut through fabric and flesh. Naruto blocked, but Kiba jabbed forward with his other hand. Naruto grabbed his wrist, but he was indeed too strong and his nails still punched into Naruto's stomach.

His nails weren't that long, and Naruto's jacket took the worst of it, but they still pierced his skin and hurt. Kiba grabbed onto Naruto's other arm and his nails dug in painfully. Kiba pulled his other hand free of Naruto's stomach, but then drove forward with his knee, causing Naruto to double over. It didn't help that were Kiba's nails had pierced was already tender. Taking a knee to almost the exact same spot was more than unpleasant.

Suddenly Kiba let go of him, but as Naruto looked up, not even a warning from the female voice could have saved him from Kiba rushing bodily into him and slamming him off his feet. For a moment his vision failed and all was black, then it was blurry and filled with stars.

"This loser is done," he heard Kiba growl. Naruto carefully glanced over and saw that Kiba had already turned away, going over to Akamaru who was limping. Naruto knew that the second he moved, even if Kiba didn't see it, the puppy might. He had to make this opportunity could. He quickly rolled to a knee and made a hand seal.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" In response, Akamaru started barking and Kiba turned on his heel, startled to say the least. Four Naruto clones rushed at him, but Kiba was able to overwhelm two almost immediately. Akamaru bit at the heels of the third, distracting it while Kiba dealt with the fourth.

Naruto grimaced when those two clones were finished off as well, he'd hoped they'd at least last longer. He moved to make more, hoping to have time to think of a plan. Kiba wasn't going to have it though, and threw shuriken at him.

"_You can catch them," _the female voice said.

"_What?"_ Catch shuriken? They were spinning blades! The slightest mess up would result in his hands being cut up!

"_You can do it. Trust yourself."_ The voice was more confident than he was it seemed. Considering its hands, if it had any, weren't on the line, it had every reason to be. Naruto decided to go for it though. He leaned to the side, and his hands shot up, if he missed this way, there was a chance the shuriken would simply fly past his hands harmlessly. He felt his fingertips touch metal, and he caught two of the shuriken as the rest flew by. He then spun around and threw them back at a wide-eyed Kiba who dodged out of the way. While he was dodging Naruto took the chance to make more clones. This time he made six.

Kiba responded by throwing a pill at Akamaru whose fur turned red. The puppy then hopped onto Kiba's back.

"Jujin Bunshin!" Kiba called out the technique, and Akamaru turned into a perfect copy of Kiba. The two suddenly turned into flying spirals with claws and tore through the clones. Naruto simply decided to make yet more, but knew at this rate even he would start running low on chakra. He couldn't afford more than one more wave of clones after this without it being risky. He watched as the new clones met a similar fate, but sent out what might be his last wave before they were finished off. He saw his chance, the new clones charged in as Kiba and Akamaru came out of their spirals. With the clones on top of them they couldn't launch off easily again. That left one last issue...

"_The one on the right is the real one," _the female voice informed. The last issue was now dealt with.

"_He's still stronger, be careful or he will overpower you,"_ the elder voice spoke up. Naruto didn't respond, but knew the voice was right. He quickly sprinted into the fray, knowing his clones wouldn't last much longer. He met the eyes of a clone and it joined the remaining clones that were engaging the transformed Akamaru. That left only one clone left against the real Kiba. Right as it was destroyed, Naruto charged through the smoke left behind and... got a fist to his face.

Naruto was spun away from Kiba and fell to his knees.

"_His senses are enhanced, he saw you coming,"_ the elder voice informed.

"_I noticed..."_ Naruto responded with a mental groan.

"_In one second, kick back," _the female voice commanded. Naruto glanced behind himself so he could aim and then did as she suggested. Kiba was caught off guard and got hit in the knee. He'd had just enough time to stop advancing to keep it from doing any real damage, but it still slowed him long enough for Naruto to get back to his feet.

Kiba then slashed at him, but Naruto had learned from his mistakes. This time instead of blocking he hopped back and as Kiba overextended himself he hopped forward and jabbed Kiba in the face. Kiba snarled in pain and slashed again, but Naruto moved to the side and jabbed him again in the same place. Kiba was infuriated now and lunged forward at full speed. Naruto didn't have time to hop out of the way and instead ducked under Kiba's arms and speared his shoulder into Kiba's stomach. With a roar of effort Naruto pushed forward, lifting Kiba off his feet and throwing him to the ground.

After basically impaling himself on Naruto's shoulder, Kiba was left coughing and struggling to breathe. Naruto was able to simply place his foot across Kiba's throat as the boy writhed. He looked over and saw that he had two clones left who'd been able to subdue Akamaru. It seemed victory was his.

"Had enough?" Naruto looked down at Kiba and pressed down with his foot to get his point across. Kiba gagged and he let off the extra pressure.

"Sc-screw you," Kiba spat out.

"Say you give up," Naruto commanded and pressed down again for a moment, only letting off so Kiba could speak.

"I..."

"Yes?"

"Hate you."

"And?"

"I... give..." Kiba mutterd just loud enough for the proctor to hear.

"Winner, Naruto!" the proctor called out and Naruto took his foot off of Kiba. He walked up to the balcony, the spectators all quiet, most of them surprised at Naruto's victory. The only ones not surprised were Sakura and Sasuke, though they still weren't cheering. There was one other though.

"Y-you were amazing," a timid voice spoke as he walked back towards his team. It was Hinata.

"I wasn't that great. Besides, should you really be complimenting me after I just beat up your teammate?" Naruto replied with a halfhearted grin. He didn't want Shino or Hinata's sensei to get upset.

"W-we're still friends aren't we? A-and from the s-same village..." Hinata blushed and looked away.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Thanks! You should be worrying about your match though, I'm sure you'll be fine, but you should prepare yourself now."

"A-about that. I-I'm scared. Most of the p-people left are scary. Th-the one with the gourd on his back especially. B-but also..." Naruto followed Hinata's gaze over to a boy with long brown hair and the same pale eyes Hinata had. He was from the team that was a year ahead, the one with Lee and Tenten.

"Another Hyuuga?"

"U-Unlike me, he's very good at our c-clan's style. I-if I fight him I-I wont stand a ch-chance. I-I don't think I can beat anyone who's still h-here." Hinata seemed to have already given up. Naruto grabed her shoulders.

"Hinata, look at me," he ordered. "Look. At. Me," he repeated when she failed to obey. She looked up into his eyes that time. "You're better than you give yourself credit for. Like I told Sakura in her match, you know how to fight, it's just a matter of remembering it when you feel your confidence fading. Just do your best, I have faith in you." He punctuated his statement with a smile. He noticed Hinata's sensei give him a startled look. Hinata looked ready to pass out for a moment, but then suddenly she smiled widely.

"Th-thank you. You're right. I'll do my best, watch me!" It seemed he'd even managed to get her to stop stuttering again.

"Of course!" Naruto grinned and let her go. He gave her a nod of farewell and then headed back to where his team was waiting.

"Good job," Sakura said with a notable lack of real enthusiasm. Likely she only said out of a sense of obligation after Naruto had helped her. Sasuke just shrugged.

"Thanks," Naruto replied with a similar lack of enthusiasm. He was happy to have won, but he wished he could celebrate with his teammates. Their tense relationship was a real buzz kill at times.

"_If it makes you feel better, they do respect you,"_ the soft voice told him.

"_They do?"_ Naruto supposed it made some sense, but it still surprised him to hear the voice say that.

"_But they don't necessarily like you. They know what you are capable of now and acknowledge it, but that is all. It will take more than earning their respect as a fellow shinobi if you want them to like you. You have to ask yourself if it is worth it."_

He would have responded, but the next match was then displayed. It made his heart sink. He was glad he'd stopped to talk to Hinata, because it seemed she'd already be needing to use the pep talk he'd given her. The worst part was, she was up against Neji, the other Hyuuga she'd been afraid of facing.

Naruto could see that Hinata's confidence was fading already, but still she made her way to the arena.

"_Sakura and Ino have a strained history, but what these two share makes their dispute look pointless and petty, you can tell by the look in their eyes. Hinata isn't afraid just because of his fighting ability, there is more to it. This is what she's been hiding from you, this is what she is too nervous to speak of when you ask,"_ the soft voice spoke. _"A lot of her problems revolve around her opponent."_

**. . .**

"Begin!"

"I didn't expect I'd be facing you," Neji said.

"N-neither did I," Hinata replied. She wished she wasn't.

"It works out well, there's something I need to tell you." Neji smirked.

"T-tell me?" When she asked Neji's smirk faded into a vicious snarl.

"Give up Hinata, you're weak. You're too soft, you're a disgrace to our clan. Our clan produces some of this villages best shinobi, but you can barely stand on your own two feet without trembling. Look at you! Right now, even as I speak you're falling apart!" His words hit home and Hinata could feel herself trembling. Something wet was rolling down her face. Sweat? No, she was crying, the shame she felt that she would be crying in the middle of a match during the Chuunin Exams only made her want to cry more, and so she felt more shame. "The only kindness that I will show is giving you a chance to realize that you are a failure and save you the pain and humiliation of a defeat at my hands." She winced at that.

"I-I..."

"Do you even want to be here? Or did you just come here to let your teammates have their chance? You're the last one, you've let the Aburame make it to the finals, you can give up now and slink home with your tail between your legs, that's what you're good at after all. Of course, then your father would have just another reason to hate you! Or does he even pay you any attention anymore?"

"N-no, I-I mean... I..." She shut her eyes, forcing more tears to run down her face. She could barely even stand, her legs felt ready to give out on her._ "I have faith in you."_ Where had that come from? It was Naruto's voice ringing in her ears. He was watching her, watching her fall to pieces without being hit once, but he'd said he had faith in her. Would she disappoint him? No, she wouldn't give up, he'd told her to do her best and she would.

"What? I'm waiting, or are you just going to stutter at me? Speak up Hinata, the proctor won't be able to hear you when you forfeit."

"I'm n-not forfeiting." Hinata wiped her eyes with her jacket sleeve. "M-maybe f-father doesn't think h-highly of me, I-I know you d-don't. B-but that's fine, you have no reason to right now, I know. I'll fight you, and I'll prove myself here." She'd said all she needed to, and so she activated her Byakugan and took her clan's fighting stance. Neji looked like he'd been slapped in the face.

"Where did this come from?" Neji glared. "Fine, be a fool." Neji activated his Byakugan as well and charged at her, striking with his palms. She deflected his blows and struck back, but he was more than capable of doing that same. Finally though she landed a glancing blow. He was forced to take a step back, but as she moved in to follow up he continued fighting back like it had never happened.

Again, she managed to hit him, but this time he simply rolled his shoulder back to absorb the blow and struck her back in the chest. She staggered back from the blow, pain radiating through her chest and blood leaking out of her mouth. She didn't understand, Neji should be reeling from the blow she had given him, why was she the only one in pain?

Neji walked over to her and grabbed her wrist, pulling her arm up and then slid her sleeve back, revealing red marks all across her arm.

"Yes, that's right, I can seal your tenketsu!" Neji growled and then struck out with his palm to knock her away again. "It's over," he grunted and turned away from her. For a moment, Hinata thought he might be right. Without her tenketsu sealed, her chakra was useless, she could hit him as many times as she wanted, but it wouldn't have even half the effect his strikes had. Unless...

"N-no..." Hinata forced herself to a knee. She unzipped her jacket and took it off, leaving it hanging loosely in one hand. "Don't turn your back on me, I-I'm not finished. Your words won't finish me, fight me properly!" Neji turned back to face her, looking infuriated that she could speak to him so boldly. He rushed at her with another palm strike aimed at her heart. It took every ounce of strength she had left, but she launched herself to her feet and swung her jacket at his arm. Neji didn't expect it even if he saw her moving to do it and his strike was stopped. He tried to knock the jacket away, but Hinata had already abandoned it and moved in close. She hit him once again, but this time she'd aimed for his face. It was a closed fist strike with all her strength, and it hit him right in the nose.

Neji stumbled back, in total shock, clutching his nose. When he pulled his hand away it was bloody.

"Y-you... my face... you..." Neji was twitching. He grit his teeth and looked at her, eyes filled with fiery rage. "You worthless little scum! I'll kill you!" He re-engaged her, and she deflected his blow, but when she wanted to try and counter attack her chest clenched and pain exploded in her. She coughed and was forced to stumble away from him to keep her moment of vulnerability from letting Neji hit her. With her Byakugan she saw him advancing towards her from behind. She turned and was able to knock a strike aside.

She knew this was a losing battle. Even if she was abandoning her fighting style and used closed fist strikes, it wouldn't matter unless she could hit him. She was exhausted now and in pain, she wouldn't be able to best him. She would, however, make it as annoying as she possibly could for him to beat her.

She blocked another strike, saving herself from another agonizing strike to her chest. She then collapsed to her hands and knees, coughing. She knew Neji wouldn't be able to resist kicking her at this point, in fact she was counting on it. Just as she suspected he cocked his foot back. When he kicked out he hit her in the stomach, but even as the pain hit her she wrapped an arm around it and rolled into him. This forced him to fall onto his back. He kicked out with his other foot and knocked her away, killing any chance she'd had to possibly pin him. She doubted she had to strength to hold him down anyway.

She shakily started to stand. Before she could finish, Neji grabbed her hair and yanked her to her feet, only to slam his palm into her full force, leaving her collapsed again.

"It's. Over. You're weak, even you know this. Struggle all you want, you can't change your destiny, the destiny of a weak fool." Neji walked away from her again, no doubt assuming the proctor would call the match any moment. When the proctor didn't call it, Neji turned and saw Hinata slowly rising again.

"N-no." Hinata was breathing heavily. She was in so much pain she could barely compose her thoughts, each breath was necessary, and yet she wished she could stop as each breath brought more agony. "The one struggling in the destiny... of the main house and the branch family... is you. I-I feel sorry for you... I can see... how angry you are." Neji snapped, his eyes shooting wide and projecting hot fury. The proctor could see what Neji intended to do.

"Enough, the match is over!" The proctor shouted, but Neji charged anyway. He came within inches of Hinata, but in a flash he was surrounded by Kakashi, Kurenai, his own Sensei and the proctor.

"Calm down! You gave me a warm promise to keep calm about your family matters!" his sensei said to him even as he held him in a firm headlock. His arms were also restrained, one by Kakashi the other by Kurenai.

"Even the other senseis. More main branch special treatment," Neji hissed, but his body relaxed prompting the senseis to slowly release him. At that moment Hinata collapsed in a horrible coughing fit, vomiting blood onto the floor.

**. . .**

Naruto's eyes widened upon seeing Hinata collapse. With the match over, he jumped the railing and was at her side within moments.

"Hinata!" He grabbed her hand, but she didn't respond, laying silently on her back, her breathing labored.

"Don't bother with her. She struggled against destiny and got what she deserved," Neji scoffed. Naruto didn't answer him, but slowly and gently placed Hinata's hand on her chest. In a flash he spun around, an animal roar escaping him as his fist sailed towards Neji's face. A loud slap was heard when his fist was intercepted by Kakashi's palm.

"Save it, Naruto. If you want to hit him, your chance my well come in the finals," Kakashi told him sternly. He then glanced at Neji. "There, now a sensei that isn't yours has stepped in on your behalf." Considering Naruto's strike had been halted barely an inch from Neji's wide-eyed face, it was probably a good thing he had. "Please deal with your student, Gai. I've taken care of mine." Kakashi gripped Naruto's shoulder tightly enough that it hurt and directed him away from Neji. Neji's sensei, who dressed in the same ridiculous green spandex as Lee, nodded and conducted Neji back up to the balcony.

"He was going to kill her," Naruto growled under his breath.

"Maybe," Kakashi nodded. "But he didn't, so calm down." As if on cue, Hinata coughed up blood at that very moment.

"Where are the medics?" Kurenai shouted her red eyes darting around the arena, looking for any sign of men carrying a stretcher for her unconscious student. Finally those men arrived and carried Hinata off. Naruto had to avert his eyes to keep himself calm, it was too painful to see Hinata in such terrible condition, especially since he couldn't do anything about it.

Feeling helpless, he slowly trudged back up to the balcony with Kakashi close behind. Sakura gave him a sympathetic look that did little to comfort him.

"I can understand why Neji was angry. She probably broke his nose," Sakura said. Naruto turned to face her, and incredulous look on his face. Was she serious? "Do me a favor and break it again if you get a chance." Naruto chuckled wryly at that.

"I'm going to do more than that. I won't stop with his nose," Naruto told her while nervously fidgeting. Neji wasn't that far away, and he could feel the older boy's hateful glare.

"I don't care what you and Kakashi told me, he went way too far." Sakura turned her own glare on Neji. Naruto was surprised the Hyuuga didn't spontaneously combust.

"Yeah." Naruto turned and saw that the board was displaying the next match. He realized then that his whole team had made it through the preliminary matches. If only Hinata had made it through as well everything would be perfect. At least now he could stop worrying and just watch that last few matches in relative peace. He was worried about Hinata, but all he could do was trust that the medics would take care of her. The uncertainty of what the next match would hold was no longer so pressing.

**. . .**

Lee had fought Gaara, the final Suna genin, and Dosu had fought the plump Chouji. Lee had put on a spectacular showing against Gaara's ability to control sand, an ability that was terrifyingly effective both for defense and offense. However, Lee had taken off a pair of leg weights and gone so fast that he'd penetrated the sand and been able to hit Gaara. It had gone right down to the wire, with Lee being forced to open chakra gates giving him blinding speed and insane power. Even so, Gaara was ridiculously resilient and had been able to cushion himself against what had been intended to be a finishing blow. With Lee exhausted and with muscle damage from pushing himself so hard, Gaara had conducted his sand to crush two of Lee's limbs, possibly ending his career as a shinobi.

Dosu against Chouji had been far less spectacular. Chouji had turned himself in a human boulder, but had crashed into a wall. Dosu had then used the water in Chouji's body to conduct sound waves, which he'd then directed to Chouji's ears, finishing him before a full minute had passed

Naruto and the other winners were now lined up in a row, listening to the Hokage congratulate them, and explaining how the finals would be handled. They were given one month to train and learn new skills and strategize. All that was left to do here was find out who they'd been matched up against first. They each took a number, and then Ibiki, the proctor from the first test, wrote down the roster and revealed it.

"_In the very first match,"_ Naruto thought. Suddenly he couldn't stop himself from grinning, even laughing quietly. He turned to face Neji, a truly insane look on his face. 'You're dead,' he mouthed to the Hyuuga. Neji seemed a little disturbed by the look on Naruto's face, but he just averted his gaze elsewhere.

Next to him Sasuke was grimacing, he was against Gaara. Sakura seemed nervous, but it was hard to say why. Worried about Sasuke? She'd been matched against Shikamaru, maybe she was worried that she wouldn't be able to outsmart him?

Other than that, the matches were: Kakuro V.S. Shino and Temari V.S. Dosu.

"Well, looks like we all made it through," Naruto said as they began to disperse.

"Yeah," Sasuke replied, worrying his neck uncomfortably as he spoke. That was when Kakashi walked up behind them.

"You've been bothered by your neck this whole time. Is something wrong?" their sensei asked.

"No, I'm fine." Sasuke shoved his hands in his pockets and ducked his head. Kakashi wasn't buying it though and grabbed Sasuke's shoulder. With his other hand he tilted Sasuke's head away, revealing the strange mark.

"Why would you hide this?" Kakashi asked angrily.

"I would have mentioned it... eventually," Sasuke muttered and avoided Kakashi's eye.

"Hmph, I'm surprised at you, all of you. One of you should have mentioned this. Sasuke's match was first, you had plenty of time after that to tell me without worry of jeopardizing his chance at the finals, but you stayed silent even then." Kakashi had said "all" of them, but strangely he was glaring mostly at Naruto. If anything it was more surprising that Sakura, whose crush on Sasuke should have left her worrying the most, had stayed silent.

"S-sorry. I-is he going to be OK?" Sakura asked, looking positively ashamed.

"Hopefully," Kakashi turned his attention back on Sasuke. "Come with me, _now,_" he ordered Sasuke and led the boy off.

That was how the prelims had ended: Sasuke _hopefully _being OK while he had a match against the most terrifying contender looming on the horizon, Hinata in critical condition, and Naruto making death threats towards a member of the most esteemed clan in the village.

* * *

**Yep. Not sure what to say here, so...**

**Animail ti-**

**Just kidding.**

**VIEWER MAIL! Well, reader mail. Whatever.**

**Ex10: Maybe they are! **

**. . .**

**Nah.**

**nxkris: I think you'll like how the Finals go.**

**johnjohn: Sorry. Thank you.**

**Blak-Ninja: MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA! **

**Why did I evil laugh? Because I wanted to.**

**And thank you for the kind words, it was really motivating! **

**Also NaruHina is not canon last I knew.**

**DeepSea: Normally wouldn't respond to this kind of review, but at this rate, no reason not to. Thanks.**

**Stormingnight: But... you said you had a theory... and then didn't tell me... now I'm curious! Damn you! Heh... thanks for reading/reviewing. **

**BakaPervert: Thanks.**

**That's all of them, I think!**

**Til' next time!**


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